#life part 4 series
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication …Catching On
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&
She woke him in the dead of night, stumbling over him, making it to the toilet with inches to spare. By the time he woke enough to call to her, ask her if she was okay, her only response was, “we’re adding beef stroganoff to the list of things we are not eating until Beans two and three are born.”
“Duly noted.” Shuffling his way into the bathroom, he handed her a towel, “need some water?”
Holding out her hand so he could help her stand, “nope. Just my toothbrush, please.”
Once back in bed, Mulder bunched her up in front of him, 3:30am entirely too early for her to have left him in the first place, vomit or not, “do you think we can tell the mothers yet? The Skinner?”
Staring into the darkened bathroom, she ignored her sore knees, bruised from her drop to the hard tile floor 10 minutes earlier, “given I’m throwing up at all hours this time around, I imagine they’ll notice tonight when I drop my winning hand and puke on your shoes.”
With a smile and a kiss to the back of her head, “that takes care of that set of parentals. What about my mom?”
Warm and comfortable, she answered with a murmured, “we could always have her down for Thanksgiving.”
“Thanksgiving is at Maggie’s.”
“We can take her with us. Scare her a little with the sheer amount of people we can fit around the kitchen table.”
Mulder snorted, shifting fine hairs on her neck and making her smile, “she’s never seen more than three people at a dinner table.”
“Then maybe it’s high time she does.” Rolling over without unseating his heavy arms, “we’ll just have to warn them not to initiate her.”
“Oh, Lord.”
“You stole my line.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Scully dressed Will in his ‘Big Brother’ onesie yet again but instead of Maggie changing him, Skinner volunteered to do it, whisking the boy into the living room before Scully could do more than draw a breath of objection. Shooting a look at Mulder, who shrugged and gave her a quick, close-lipped smirk, both waited quietly to see just what their overly tall, imposingly large boss might do as he dealt with his 15-pound grandson.
It took only a moment, but instead of a calm, rational, ‘pardon me, have I read this small fry’s belly correctly,’ it was a whooping, “hot damn!”
Scully snorted, Mulder boomed out a laugh, and the rest of the ladies shot looks back and forth just short the speed of sound. Skinner arrived in the doorway a few moments later, Will slung over one arm, facing out, shirt declaring the Mulder-Scully family news for the world to see.
There was more whooping once the information about double the baby came out two minutes later.
&&&&&&&&&&
Scully’s regular pants could only hold out so long. She expanded faster with the latest additions and sliding on her stretchy, elastic, ‘oh thank God the button breaking isn’t going to kill whomever is in front of me’ pants, she sighed in relief, “I have a feeling these kids are going to come out weighing a combined 30 pounds, with full sets of teeth and obscene amounts of hair. Fingers crossed they don’t split me in two.”
Mulder witnessed all of this from the door to their bedroom, holding a wiggling Will in his arms, and ignoring the hair and teeth diatribe, “those pants are going to come in handy with all the food we’ll be eating today.”
Her stomach roiled for a moment, then calmed, “want to borrow a pair?”
“Don’t tempt me.” Handing Will to her, “give me five minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Take your time. I’m going to have to pee again in a few minutes anyways.”
“Are you sure there aren’t three kids in there?” She gave him a good, old-fashioned Scully look and he grinned, “I recall something about wanting five or six kids anyway.”
“Not all at once.”
Once in the car, Scully groped for his phone nestled against the shifter, then held it out to him, “you should call your mom.”
Mrs. Mulder had declined their invitation, citing the long drive and feeling slightly rundown. Mulder, sitting carefully upright, the containers of food stacked on his lap warming his legs through their thermal bags, “I can do it tonight.”
Knowing him as she did, she knew he’d be in some sort of food coma and needing a nap before he finished chewing the last forkful of sweet potatoes, “I love you but you’ll forget by tonight, and besides, she should hear about Bean 2 & 3.”
Knowing she was right, he took the phone, “hey, mom, it’s me.”
The conversation lasted beyond Scully parking the car, turning off the ignition, and leaning back, twisting slightly to watch him finish his conversation. He called his mother almost every Saturday, from the road or the living room, but today’s exchange made him smile wider than normal and ending with, “I will call on Saturday and figure things out, okay?” A moment later, the still oddly-stilted even after decades ‘love you, have a good night’ would never cease to have her putting her hand on his arm, fingers squeezing gently.
“What are we figuring out?”
Mulder, staring from the phone to his wife, then smiling again, “she would like to come for Christmas.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
This Thanksgiving was by far the largest dinner Maggie had hosted to date. Bill was in town, the Gunmen arrived with flaming pudding and bags of homemade rolls, Betty showed up with her mild-mannered husband Jonathan, and the surprise of the evening, John Doggett waved a friendly hello from his station at the stove, where he had been given the job of mashing at least 30 pounds of taters.
There was barely a pause before Mulder waved back and Scully called hello. Skinner, tactful as always, whispered a minute later than Maggie had invited him the night before, when she had answered the house phone that Doggett had accidently called.
Scully grinned, “does she have enough chairs for everybody?”
“She says pregnant people and guests get dibs on chairs but for the rest of us, it’s every man for himself.”
Mulder opened his mouth but Scully stopped him, “no, my pregnancy does not carry over to you.”
Fake punching her in the chin with Will’s little fist, “then you better save me a seat.”
Nibbling Will’s tiny fingers, she looked at her husband with a grin, “sorry buddy, can’t save seats in Maggie’s kitchen.”
He kissed her nose, “you have moved off my favorite person list.”
An hour later, the table was groaning under the weight of the feast and Maggie, after prayers, threatened each and every present occupant of the kitchen, those standing at the counters and those who managed to get seats, “if anyone throws, flings, whips, chucks, whings, or launches anything that should not be naturally in the air, I will not be a happy camper and if anyone here remembers the incident of 1992 first-hand or via re-telling, do not push me on this.”
23 people nodded simultaneously.
Mulder wanted to laugh but feared for his life as well as his dinner. He hadn’t managed to get a seat so he was standing beside Skinner at the kitchen island, but he had a good vantage point of those behind Maggie, who were grinning at her statement but managed to go straight-faced when she whipped round to address them with pointed finger, “I am not kidding.”
Charlie, who had snagged a seat by pushing his eldest to the ground, “yes, mother.”
Jake, who had been picked up off the floor by Mulder, and was now eating on Mulder’s other side, “yes, grandma.”
Maggie bounced her look between the two, “you are both going to give me gray hair.” Settling into her chair, which everyone had wisely left empty for her, “in the immortal words of your late father, grandfather, and uncle, ‘he who eats the fastest, gets the mostest!”
Everyone moved at once, bowls passing from hand to hand, slowly emptying and miraculously being refilled from the many overflow pots and pans in the oven and on the stove. Mulder, wanting another roll, called out to Charlie, who was hording the bread basket, “hey, Charlie, can you send the rolls up here?”
And Charlie, being Charlie, quick as lightning grabbed the requested bread and under his mother’s speechless gaze, slow-tossed it the ten feet to Mulder in a perfect arc, directly over Maggie’s head.
Maggie’s mouth opened to deliver some choice words but Charlie stopped her with his disarming grin and a Scully-pointer finger directed at her, “you can’t yell at me. That was a toss. I tossed the roll to Mulder. You said we couldn’t throw, fling, whip, chuck, whing, or launch. I didn’t do any of those things. I tossed.”
His mother’s squinted stare should have melted his skin off, burned a hole through his skull but he squinted right back at her and all of a sudden, her chin wobbled, then, half-a-moment later, a grin burst forth, a hearty chuckle following which led immediately to out-and-out laughter, tears rolling soon after.
Charlie leaned back and bit into another roll, “love you, mom.”
A spoonful of mashed potatoes smacked him in the center of the forehead and stuck there while he continued to chew.
Maggie, still laughing, licked her now-empty spoon, thankful her aim had been dead-on, “don’t mess with me, boy.”
Once everyone had returned to their normal state of eating, Mulder felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Stealing a look at the number, he excused himself and headed to the living room, waving away Scully’s sudden concerned look, whispering, “it’s just mom.”
Mulder returned a few minutes later, heading back to his plate but looking not quite as jovial as he had when he left. He joined back in the conversation, diving into the discussion of the current football season with Matt and Doggett, who was standing across from him.
&&&&&&&&&&&
It took another hour but finally the table was cleared, the dishes were done, and dessert was displayed but intact on the table, waiting until there had been some digestion before delving back in. Scully looked around, realizing quickly that Mulder was gone. Handing a milk-drunk Will to Joanna, she went in search of him, finding him upstairs in her old room, sitting quietly in the dark on the bed.
“Hey you. You feel okay?” Looking up at her, she finally saw the anguish in his eyes. Sitting quickly beside him, “what happened? What did your mom tell you when she called?”
“It, uh … it wasn’t my mom who called. It was my aunt.” Leaning forward on his bended knees, he held his chin as he told her quietly, “my mom died about an hour before Veronica called me.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie …Multiplication
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
just sayin’, there’s some of the sex …
&&&&&&&&&&
This time, she was the one offering the multiple ‘holy shit’s’ in the living room.
“Holy Shit, Mulder.”
He shook his head at her, still stunned, “yeah, that’s what keeps running through my head as well.” Dropping back into the couch cushions, Will settled quietly on his lap, baby feet tapping a sporadic rhythm on Mulder’s belly, “she was an odd duck but not in a Layla odd way or a Dogget odd way. We talked for several hours and she believes everything I do and then some. I mean,” picking up Will and planting a kiss on his nose, received a giggle and a kiss right back, much stickier given the applesauce he had been eating when Mulder arrived home, “it’s like if you took all my ghosts, goblins, demons, and darkness and smashed them together with your ‘God does weird shit, don’t mess with him’ beliefs.” Wiping off the sticky kiss, “essentially, Monica Reyes is our fully formed love child.”
“That’s disturbing.”
Mulder’s hands went up, then moved to grip his head, fingers tugging at his hair, “I know! If she were to actually get this to work, she’d need somebody more disbelieving, yet easygoing, than Doggett to keep her in check. I mean … God …” he let his smile curve half his face, “it’s finally catching on.”
Scully couldn’t smile back at the moment, “you want to go with her, don’t you?”
He gave her a look that would be comical in any other circumstance, “what? No.” Comical moved to concrete, “I’ve got you and the youngling and two more beans on the way.” He raised a well-learned imitation Scully eyebrow at her, “now, if for some reason, I hadn’t managed to get you to fall in love with me and reproduce, I would think that you would be a pretty good fit to work with her at first. You’d be able to argue her religious leanings even though you believe them.”
“Are you saying that, if I hadn’t finally allowed you the pleasure of seeing me naked and doing the reproducing, you would have shipped me to southern Louisiana without a second thought?”
Standing, he retrieved a bag of M&Ms from the cupboard, handing them to her, red mixed with all the other colors, “do we need to review the contents of this bag and their meaning, young lady?”
By now, she was grinning, Will safely resting against her hip, “maybe later, once the kid is sound asleep.”
Mulder kissed her, first on the forehead, then, because he was totally allowed without getting smacked, on her mouth, “I am not going anywhere. You are not going anywhere. But I can’t guarantee things aren’t going to get a little weird here for awhile if I need to go for a week or so, just to see what she has down there.” Kissing her again, “maybe I’ll even bring you with me. Leave Will in the charge of his Gunmen uncles. Eat beignets naked in the jacuzzi, lick excess powdered sugar off your thighs, wander a little around the city without crutches and stitches and concussions, oh my.”
Shifting Will a little, she leaned up, kissing the dent in his chin, “when do we leave?”
“No comments on the Gunmen uncles?”
“Not right now. I will probably have some later but right now, I’m thinking I’d like to take your pants off.”
“Always my pants with you.”
&&&&&&&&&
Two a.m. and both were awake, room dark, mattress soft, voices low, “if this works, Scully … if she finds a partner and solves some things, and honestly, doesn’t get killed in the process, this will be phenomenal.”
“I know it will but it’s going to take awhile. She’s going to need someone she trusts who can do the medical side of all this, and she’s going to have to find them on her own.”
“You were assigned to me.”
“Yeah, and remember how much fun that was at the beginning. It took a few years for you to trust me.”
“Naw, I trusted you from the beginning.”
Poking him in the side, she moved to run her fingers lightly over his ribs, enjoying the hot skin under her hand, “you tolerated me from the beginning. You thought I was ‘hot’ from the beginning. You wanted me naked from the beginning. You didn’t trust me from the beginning.”
Mulder rolled to his side, his own hand gliding over her ribs and down over her bare ass, “you let me see you naked from the beginning so that one doesn’t count against me.”
“Half-naked.”
“Not in my mind.”
Scooting herself up against him, she closed her eyes, deep breath in signaling sleep not far away, “your version, my version, and, if you don’t mind, I’d like to not be talking about Monica Reyes while legitimately naked this time.”
He wiggled himself down until he could get her nipple into his mouth, hand still firmly on her ass, debating a finger slide in, “have I ever told you what I thought about doing after you barged into my room in that cute little bra?”
“Is it anything like what you’re thinking about doing now?”
“Not quite. Had I been debating fingering your ass like I am now,” finger indeed toying and dipping, “I would have definitely kicked you out of the room and gotten off in like a minute and a half.”
Scully was quite awake again and hips moving unconsciously, “then what were you thinking?”
“That there was a possibility, that if I could just get you to believe me, just once …” finger diving deeper, slipping easier, “then maybe I could get up enough courage to ask you out on a date.”
Her own hand maneuvered to her clit, just as wet as the rest of her, “there would have been a distinct possibility that if you had told me how good you were with your hands, I’d have said ‘yes’ even if I didn’t believe you.”
Mulder rolled her over, finger never wavering, until she was on her back and he had easier access. Shifting to his knees, he crouched over her, watching her, adoring her, “can you come?”
Hips bucking up, “are you kidding?”
With a laugh, he moved as deep as possible, her muscles spasming moments later around him, choking the blood flow to his finger for a few seconds until everything relaxed, the sheen of sweat on her forehead and chest making him grin, “good round one?”
Pretense gone, “go wash your hand.”
He did not argue.
By three, Mulder was pulling out of her, twice for him, three for her, towel underneath them soaked, her hair a damp, fluffy mass, his arm muscles shaking, bite marks to his collar bone stinging, bruises to her hips darkening from his iron grip as he pounded into her with enough force to knock the headboard against the wall.
“How did we not wake up small fry?”
Heart finally slowing, “no idea but don’t question it.” Getting her rolling eyeballs under control, “thank you.”
Collapsing beside her, “are you kidding? We left a dent in the wall. Thank you.”
“Do you think we made the twins seasick?”
Mulder laughed, “at least they won’t remember it.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling …The Onesie
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
“Holy … shit …”
Scully was simply silent.
“Holy … shit …”
Scully drew a deep breath.
“Holy … shit …”
“Would you stop saying that?”
Mulder looked from the monitor to Scully and back to the monitor, fingers nervously touching the screen, then pulling back quickly, wondering if touching the image would make it disappear, “but … there’s two.”
Having regained her faculties, she bumped shoulders with him, losing the connection to her belly but not minding, given she had already captured the picture, “maybe that’s why I’m more vomit-y than with Will.”
He didn’t even call her on the use of the word vomit-y, “How did you not see the first time we did this?”
“All I can think of is one was hiding behind the other and besides, they aren’t that big. Lima Bean 2 may have looked like an air bubble.”
Squinting at her in wonder, “what will you give me to get me to promise never to tell one of our children that for the first two months of their life, you thought they were a fart bubble?”
Wiping the goo off her belly, sliding her shirt back down, “it’ll give them character. I’m fine with it.”
“You’re getting a shirt.”
As she stood up, “I’ll wear it with pride but first,” already moving down the hall, “I’m going to throw up.”
&&&&&&&&&
True to his word, he had a shirt for her which read, “I thought my baby was a fart bubble,” by the time he came home from work the next day but Scully chose not to wear it trick-or-treating, “I don’t want to go declaring things until I’m further along.”
“I know but I think it will go under your sweater just fine.”
Seeing the shine in his eyes and his ‘you’re gonna cave’ grin, she shook her head and pulled sweater off, leaving exposed slightly not so flat belly, “I am going to be huge by the end of May.” She stopped suddenly, “what if they have the same birthday as Will?”
“I know a guy who knows a guy who could do a spell or at least cast a charm that would totally make that happen.”
Oh my God, she honestly thought she might know the guy he was talking about, and with a serious notionative thought that would have scared the bejeesus out of her a few years early, she actually debated on whether to have Mulder get him on the phone.
Sometimes she stopped and wondered what in the world had happened to her straight and narrow life.
He saw first the debate and reached for his pocket, phone within inches, number already floating through the slag to the surface of his consistently cluttered mind, but then he noticed the two seconds of sheer doubt in the entire world and he stopped, reaching into his other pocket instead, to produce a red M&M. Picking off lint, he held it out to her, “this is for you so you remember why you like me.”
Scully ate it from his fingertips, “momentary lapse of reason. It’s gone now.”
Trick-or-treating went well. Scully, Mulder, Dave, and Skinner traveled with the pack while the other parents stayed to pass out candy at Maggie’s. Will pulled in a good haul simply because the alien costume Mulder had made was incredibly adorable, with its green fuzzy material and it hood with giant eyes. Mulder had demanded gray but Scully won, telling him no one would know what he was if the costume was gray.
As a reward for winning, she agreed to share a quarter of her son’s take with his father, “a quarter? What the hell?”
Whispering to him, “three mouths to feed. I get three-quarters.”
He contemplated, then conceded, following with a cocked head, “we’ll have to do things to burn off the sugar high, won’t we?”
“Indeed we will.”
Skinner simply shook his head at the whispering and the giggling of his agents trailing behind, “keep up with the rest of the class, kids. I don’t want you getting lost back there.”
Taking Scully’s hand, pushing the stroller with the other, “come on. Dad doesn’t want us to get lost.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Mulder walked off the elevator the following morning, immediately bombarded by the smell of patchouli and cigarette smoke. Neither smell was to his liking and he entered the office asking, in an irritated voice, “what the hell is that smell?”
A dark-haired woman turned around, answering him in a no-nonsense clip that he would have appreciated had he not already decided she was a pain in his ass given that the smell of smoke that clung to her was even worse once he was in the room, “my name is Monica Reyes.”
Neither Doggett nor Harrison were anywhere to be seen and Mulder narrowed his gaze at her, “how can I help you, Monica Reyes, because there are only roughly nine people who know we exist down here and you are not one of them.”
Non-plussed by the closed and suspicious tone of one Fox Mulder, she held out her hand, never blinking, never looking away, “you must be Agent Mulder. John’s told me a lot about you.”
Ignoring her hand and knowing he was being rude, he continued, “what brand of cigarettes do you smoke?”
Monica tilted her head at him, finally become irritated, “none. The smell on me is from two days of staying with my stepmother. She smokes Marlboro, not that it’s any of your business, while I have never so much as thought about smoking anything, given she has lung cancer and is on track to die a slow, suffocating death. Her name is Patricia. You could call and ask her yourself but that may be hard, given she breathes, and smokes, through a tube in her neck.”
Mulder felt sufficiently horrible by now and shutting his eyes, he regrouped, this time meeting her hand that continued to hover between them, “I’m sorry. I have innate suspicions.”
“Of smokers? Strangers? Women named Patricia?”
All in, “yes.”
“Are you done being an asshole?”
“Probably not but I’ll do my best to keep it to a minimum.” It felt weird to be called out by someone who wasn’t his wife or his boss, “what can I do for you, Miss Reyes?”
“It’s actually Agent Reyes. I’m up here from New Orleans to talk to both you and to my friend, John.”
He was having a fine morning, “can we maybe start over? Let me come back in here and be … less … total dipshit?”
Monica laughed, “you’re fine. John informed me of your incredibly low tolerance for anyone who wasn’t Agent Scully. I actually expected this exchange to be worse.”
Shaking his head, “for what it’s worth, I’m sorry again and,” looking around, “moving on, where is Doggett? He would have had to let you in here.”
“He’s up stealing us the good Danish. It seems the third floor has the best in the building.”
Mulder’s stomach growled loudly, “I hope he steals enough for everyone.” It finally sank in where she was from, “New Orleans, you said, right? Did you come up here to escape Halloween in the city?”
“I love Halloween in the city. It’s almost as much fun as Mardi Gras but without so many boobs and beads but the best is actually tonight, which is ‘Day of the Dead.’ I’m missing one of the best parties of the year to be here.”
Offering her a seat and heading to his behind the desk, “should I be honored?”
“More like informative.” Sitting, back straight, arms loosely crossed, “I’d like to start an X-Files division down south.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
It was a quiet Thursday, a peaceful Thursday during which Scully decided to have her fun. She’d gotten her two-lined, pink, positive ‘so you’re having a baby, now what?’ plastic perfection results an hour earlier and the plan was set.
Hell, it wasn’t so much a plan as a onesie she needed to go find and had six hours with which to purchase and, oh yes, the baby store did not disappoint. One onesie purchased, she grocery shopped, then headed home, getting Will all spiffy in his new outfit so she could spring her surprise when Mulder got home.
He rolled in about 5:30pm, happy in the idea that, while there was no Thursday card party, he’d get to have his own tiny party of three, complete with spitting up baby, slightly tired Scully, possibly garlic breadsticks and ranch-drenched salad (she’d converted him to the point where he did not internally gag at the thought of salad so score one for Scully).
“What in the world is wrong with you today?”
Scully, who kept losing the fight with her face, grinning unexpectedly every few minutes, shook her head at him, “nothing a little chocolate cake couldn’t cure.”
She was weird.
He told her so.
She smiled again.
He gave up and grinned back as he asked, “what would you like for dinner? I was having fairly good fantasies about breadsticks and salad on my way home.”
Honestly not caring, “works for me.”
“Wysinski’s Pizza Palace or John’s Slices and Sticks?”
She’d purposely gotten Will’s lunch on his shirt and handing him to Mulder, “John’s sounds good. Why don’t you go change his shirt and I’ll order.”
“Ranch, please.”
Fiddling with the phone, she snuck up, standing silent in the doorway to watch Mulder with his large hands, flip and flop their 14-pound son around like he weighed approximately four ounces. Then all movement stopped.
She watched the back of Mulder’s head tilt one way, then the other, then back to first position. Holding Will up at eye-level, he brought the boy closer, then moved him about a foot away. Scully could almost see the squint on Mulder’s face and, biting her tongue to keep from laughing, she instead watched Will giggle when he caught her eye, flailing tiny fists around in ‘I see my mama!’ glee.
Without turning around, Mulder asked Will, “is your mother behind us?”
Will responded with a raspberry.
“I see.” Mulder continued to regard his son, “and it’s pretty safe to assume you did not drive to the store yourself today to buy this particular piece of clothing, yes?”
Wet fist to Mulder’s cheek.
“Okay. Well, then, I guess I should just ask, given I believe you will tell me the truth, if you are indeed going to be a big brother or if this is some randomly cruel joke you have decided to play on your father without your mother’s consent?”
Will wiggled ecstatically, throwing another gummy grin in Scully’s direction before coming in fast to gnaw on the end of Mulder’s nose.
“I will take that as a ‘no, this is not a cruel joke.’”
Will squeezed Mulder’s face with pudgy hands.
Mulder’s voice rose a notch, “I know you’re back there so you might as well just come in and explain yourself, young lady.”
Pushing gently off the doorway she’d been leaning on, “I didn’t think there was much to explain.”
Turning, Mulder held up Will in her direction, so she could clearly see the onesie stating ‘big brother’ on it, “you will explain how you waited a whole half-day to tell me this little tidbit.” His smile lit up the room, “and it better have only been half a day because if you kept this to yourself any longer than that, we’d be having words.”
“8:15 this morning, after you left. I had my suspicions, of course,” moving to stand in front of him, taking the tiny, wriggling, bearer of beautiful news, in her arms, “but I didn’t want to tell you anything until I knew for sure.”
Long kiss to her forehead, then her mouth, “you are forgiven for 9 hours of indiscriminate lying, and what? Two weeks of secrets? One week? Three weeks?” He looked at her, eyebrows up, “how long before suspicion turns into peeing on a stick?”
“About two weeks.”
Forgetting pizza, clean shirts, and current squirming baby, he squished her in a hug, “it was that Mexican night on the couch, wasn’t it?”
Chuckling as she pulled back a little to give her son some breathing space, “I think it was. Then or the next morning, when you decided the lean me over the kitchen table.”
For the love of Pete, he looked proud, “nice.”
“Oh, my, God, you are such a Mulder.”
His own chuckle escaped, “so are you now, in theory, and don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy either encounter.”
She could only shrug, half-smile hidden by Will’s head, “new plan. You order, I feed little monster here and then, maybe, after he falls asleep, we can re-enact a few things.”
“Do I get to lick ranch off of you?”
“I was thinking more about the chocolate pudding I made yesterday, but, I mean, to each their own.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The clock has just turned over to 10 when Mulder sat back, pudding spread from cheek to cheek, licking his lips, “that is possibly the most erotically odd flavor combination in the world. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat pudding again in the company of anyone but you.”
Splayed in front of him, towel under her ass to catch pudding run-off, she gave him a slack-jawed smile, “you should come up here and let me taste it.”
Another few minutes later, Scully pulled back a little, “I have a suggestion.”
Licking her collarbone because it was what he could reach at the moment, “yes?”
“Let me go pee and shower quick, then I come back and give you a taste of your own medicine.”
He bobbed back up to attention in seconds, “can I come shower with you?”
“You can, but you’re just going to need another one by the time I’m done.”
Leaving a pudding ring around her nipple, “three showers in one day never killed a guy.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Third shower done by 11, Mulder snuggled up behind Scully, sleepy and dry, pudding-free and warm, “two kids, Scully. We’re going to have two kids. Two kids in diapers, two kids demanding food, two college tuitions, two sets of new shoes every six months … two rugrat Mulder-Scully’s to argue with over clean socks and dirty underwear.”
“Who said we’re stopping at two?”
He hugged her tightly to his chest, a happy squiggle vibrating up his spine, “are we going to go for a full baseball team?”
“Might as well. We seem to be pretty good at it.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness …Taco Night …
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
The world was calm for a beautifully short time; Mulder breathing a little easier every day Doggett and Harrison walked through the door. They were quick learners, arguing amicably, which was unheard of for new partners. Mulder listened to them, interjected often, watched them work through things, and in the end, began to get that feeling in his stomach.
Going home one night, late in August, and kissing Scully, he took a deep breath of baby shampoo and Desitin before, “well, it’s happening.”
“What’s happening?”
“The apprentices are catching on.”
After handing Will to Mulder, she folded her arms, giving him a scrutinizing look that would have crippled lesser men than he, “and how are you feeling about that?”
“I thought about that on the way home.” Walking past her and heading to the kitchen, son against his shoulder, “and I have discovered that, while unnerved and slightly sad, I realized I was coming home to you and smallness here and I was much less unnerved and sad than I ever would have thought possible.”
She absorbed this new development in Mulder’s core being in stride, “conclusion?”
“We should go out to dinner, introduce the kid to our first date Mexican place, and discuss how much money we need to open that donut shop of ours.”
Scully, deciding that she would just have to wait this out, nodded, “think he’s ready for salsa yet?”
“Sure, as long as you change the diapers for the next three days.”
“Think we can go to the bookstore?”
“As long as you don’t live out your life-long fantasy of feeding our son salsa before the age of 10.”
She kissed him, “give me ten minutes to get ready.”
Corky had hung a sign explaining the bookstore’s closure to a suitably disappointed Mulder and Scully, “closed for flu and subsequent Indiana Jones marathon. Back on Wednesday. Peace.”
“Do you think that we could open our bakery next door? I think I would like to have him as a neighbor.”
Mulder looked over at her, hiking Will’s carrier back up, “works for me.” Turning her towards Mexican with a nudge to her side, “but right now, I’m starving. Move it.”
Midway between tortilla #3 and margarita #1, Scully gave Mulder a look, her eyes just beginning to swim a poor doggy paddle through waist-high cheap tequila, “are you really ready to leave the FBI?”
Sipping his second glass of designated driver ice tea, Mulder tilted at her, head assuming his patent ‘I am feeling mellow enough to answer your question quite honestly, no matter how much it might unnerve you’ 36-degree angle, “I think that … I want to come home to you … and Will … and not wonder if I’m being followed in the process.”
“We can’t open a donut shop.”
A smile twitched the corner of his mouth, amused she hadn’t lost her contractions yet, “we can do whatever we want. What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t have the money or the education or the … the,” waving his hands at her, “the courage to do?”
There was enough tequila in her system to answer honestly, “I have always wanted, don’t laugh, to be an astronaut.”
Mulder sat back, dumbfounded, “shit. You would pick the one thing I can’t afford to give you.”
She laughed, picking her fork back up, aiming the tines in his direction, “I think that you should finish out the year, and then, we will look into finding a nice, little house with an office where you can write sci-fi adventure novels about our travels and I can point out all the inaccuracies about your memories of our travels and then we will take road trips every summer and cozy up on the couch every winter.”
“And go to Babar?”
“We will buy a whole beach’s worth of Babar’s so each family can have one and we can all visit together. We’ll be the terrors of Kill Devil Hill.”
Mulder grinned, filing away the astronaut wish as well as a mental note to see how much that little vacant storefront on the other side of Corky’s bookstore was going for.
&&&&&&&&&&
Sooner rather than later, they were home; Will in his crib, fast asleep, full of oatmeal and milk (not salsa) while Scully was sitting in Mulder’s lap on the couch, “Mulder, I believe I am still under the influence of the margarita.”
His hands on her hips, his sober mind pinpoint focused on her breasts eight inches from his face, “I believe you are, too.”
“I also think that you are wearing too many clothes.”
“I believe you are, too.”
In a flurry of neckhole wresting, Scully getting stuck twice and needing rescuing, they were eventually naked, Scully sliding slowly down on him while he continued to hold her upright, “you know what else I want?”
“I can imagine exactly what you want right now.”
As she slowly began moving up and off him, slipping back down, slightly erratic rhythm made up for with clenching muscles and a tongue that made his head spin, “we talked about it before, I think, but I want another baby. I want four or five more, actually, but I’ll settle for making just one right now.” Wigging herself even further onto him, both groaned in unison, “can we do that, Mulder? Can we make another one?”
Words were difficult but the idea was sound as he told her in broken breaths, “I can’t … guarantee … but I am always … willing … to try.”
Half-drunk hand floating down to her clit, sweet strawberry breath against his neck, breast in his hand while the other grabbed her ass, she rode him, couch springs squeaking, slippery sweat slide of legs and chest. Coming faster and harder than both expected, instead of crying out, she had the forethought, hazy as it was, to bury her filthy words in a cushion instead of echoing them off the walls.
It was the dirty words and crystalline fantasies she mumbled as she fucked him that brought him over the edge right behind her, September heat wave having nothing on the joined pair of them moving their world on nine square feet of leather real estate.
The aftermath made him smile, an attack of the giggles rolling her body as she still held him hostage. He would give her the universe and everything in it just to hear that laugh, her lurching chest against him, her arms around his neck. He laughed with her, no idea why but when he laughed, she jerked and shimmied, finally, getting out, between inhales, “when you laugh, you twitch and things move.”
He laughed again and she popped upright, off him in an instant, still giggling, “don’t. Your twitches and my twitches don’t match.”
Oh, good God, he loved her more ever second of every day.
&&&&&&&&&&
They didn’t mention that night again, moving drunken wishes and unfulfilled fantasies to the backburner. Mulder stayed in DC more, letting Doggett and Harrison take cases on their own, a phone call away but still, as Scully whispered to herself in disbelief, at home with her and Will.
At home with her and Will and, from what the little drugstore stick told her, the latest addition to the Scully-Mulder household.
The news of which she happily surprised him with, in the most Mulder way she could possibly think of …
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants …The Secret Vault of Mudlerness
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
Doggett and Harrison had been around for a fair amount of time at this point and Scully, while sitting on the balcony, rocking Will with her foot and reading several potential casefiles for Mulder and company, she called to him through the screen door, “hey, Mulder?”
Mulder, never really out of earshot of her because, well, it was Scully and he could listen to her forever, called back from the kitchen where he was washing the dinner dishes, “yeah?”
“We should have them over for dinner.”
He had to think for a minute, then, still not sure if he knew who she meant, walked out, dishtowel in hand, “who’s them?”
She looked at him with a grin before waving the file at him, “your people. Doggett, Harrison … do these names ring a bell?”
She received a flying towel to the face before he sat down in the other chair, “you mean, like, have them here and make them food and eat it with them?”
Apparently, he was not well versed in guests, “yes. That is generally how dinner works.”
He would make her pay later, somehow, “I get that but I guess it never occurred to me to socialize with them, outside of the office or a case, I mean.”
Adorable crazy person he was, “well, I think you should ask them over for maybe tomorrow or Wednesday. I can make fail-safe spaghetti or even just have taco night.”
Looking at her as if she were the most fascinatingly complex person alive, “Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, dinner hosts. Weird.”
She shoved him with her free foot, still rocking Will with the other, “just go call them.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Being the ‘new in town’ and ‘workaholic but needs to see daylight every so often’ partners they were, both Doggett and Harrison accepted and sooner rather than later, Wednesday evening rolled around, with Mulder freshly laundered, Will unsticky, Scully wearing her fancy flipflops but planning on being barefoot before long. Just as Scully finished drying her hands, she suddenly stopped mid-motion, “shit.”
“What?”
“What do I call them? I can’t call them Agent Doggett and Agent Harrison, that would be to … just … to. Do I call them John and Leyla? What do you call them? What do they call me? Am I still Agent Scully? They can’t …”
Mulder stopped her with a hand to her mouth, “take a deep breath, would you? You’re gonna freak me out.”
Before he could get any further in his statement, the doorbell rang, Scully letting out a nervous giggle, which surprised them both, “fuck, this is gonna be awkward.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Doggett followed Mulder through the door a minute later, greeting Scully with a head nod and a, “hi ya, Agent Scully.”
She had to smile, “call me Dana, if you’d like or just Scully. The agent part of my life has been on hold for quite awhile at this point.”
With a nod and a crooked smile, “Dana, then. I’m John.”
“Nice to have you, John.”
Mulder desperately wanted to interject something here but the doorbell rang again and soon, Layla and John were standing in the living room, making small talk about families, pets, and the general DC area. Soon enough, Will decided he needed to meet this John person and immediately leaned towards him. To Mulder’s nerves and Scully’s nod, Doggett picked him up, snuggled him to his shoulder, then let out the largest smile any of them had ever seen, “I haven’t held a baby since my son was this age. I’ve forgotten how light they are.”
Will took to him like glue, chewing on Doggett’s collar with Doggett standing there, the most content-looking, scary, gruff FBI man since Skinner to melt under the influence of one William Walter.
“He likes you.”
Settling down on the kitchen chair, Will on his shoulder, “the feeling is mutual.”
Mulder relaxed after Scully subtly told him, via lightning-fast eyeball exchanging, to calm himself down. Harrison was quieter at first, which shocked them all but soon, the taco fixings needed cutting and the meat needed cooking and she jumped in, talking a mile a minute about when she ran a taco truck for the summer in Ocean City with her uncle.
For all the words the small woman sped through in a minute, Scully liked her.
That said a lot.
&&&&&&&&&&
Doggett didn’t seem at all put out when offered a bottle to give Will but eventually, before the adults settled in for food, he had to relinquish him, “catch you later, little man.”
Scully, honest to God, felt like she would be comfortable leaving her little boy with the lanky man in the button-down shirt.
Once Will had fallen asleep, dinner began, the talk lagging every so often but then Mulder off-handedly mentioned Jim-Jim the Dog-faced boy, which is quite impressive considering how hard it actually is to work Jim-Jim the Dog-faced boy into a conversation without simply saying, “so, ever heard of Jim-Jim the Dog-faced boy?”, the conversation took on a life of its own, jumping from sideshow murder to fetishists, which Scully steered them away from, to eventually landing on satanic cultists and the Devil himself.
Doggett argued amicably that that was all nonsense but in a way that didn’t imply that everyone else was fucking stupid for believe in the nonsense. Harrison fought back passionately, citing statistics and documentation of Devil possession and worship. Mulder argued on Harrison’s side while Scully, sipping her Margarita, fell in the middle, arguing both believer and skeptic.
Her brain stretched like it hadn’t in years, keeping up with the greenhorns and loving it.
It really was like seeing “MulderNScully: The Early Years” from the seat of a well-versed elder.
It was after 11 by the time both said their goodbyes, heading to vehicles and into the night, leaving Mulder to lock the door before coming back upstairs to lean on the kitchen wall, watch Scully nibble at some guac and chips, “well?”
“I’m exhausted.”
Laughter ringing quietly, “they are a handful.”
“But it was fun. I’ve never watched us argue before.” Waving a chip in his direction, “they’re gonna have Walter quitting within a year.”
“I told him I figured he would last about nine months.”
Snorting, she went in for another chip, “if I tell you something, will you promise not to get mad?”
“You like Doggett more than me, don’t you?”
She nearly threw the chip at him, but smiling, “of course not but I do have the weirdest feeling that I could leave Will with him and I wouldn’t worry.”
“He’d come home with a New York accent.” Sitting down across from her, “but I can see it. Not saying I’d ever let Will out of sight, but if necessary, Doggett could be a decent stand-in if we run out of relatives.”
Both continued to chew in silence until Scully yawned, “you know what we are?”
“Adorable?”
Shaking her head at him, “we are untrained at the art of hosting.” When Mulder looked blankly at her, she rephrased, “do you realize those two are the first people we have had over here that aren’t related to us. We don’t have friends, Mulder. We have family and we have adopted family.”
“What about the Holy Trinity?”
“Frohike has knitted my mother an afghan. Langley had slept on my mother’s living room floor and Byers taught her how to cook standing rib roast. They are Scully whether they like it or not.”
Two more chips, “yeah, we’re pathetic.”
“The problem is, one day, they’ll be at my mother’s for dinner and Layla will have her tongue dyed blue and Doggett will tell a story with that accent and my mother will swoon and then they will be brought into the fold as well.”
Three chips and a stolen sip of Margarita, “I’m beginning to believe the Scully family is some kind of cult.”
“We do basically drink the Kool-Aid every Thursday.”
Wiping his hands on his pants, Mulder stood, kissing her forehead before beginning to put whatever was still out, away, “and damn good Kool-Aid it is.”
The piece-de-resistance of the evening came about 10 minutes later in the form of a text from Doggett, “thank you for dinner. I believe I stole little man’s pacifier. Do you need it back tonight because I can run it right over? Can’t have him waking up crying without it.”
Mulder held up his phone to show Scully, “I think Doggett’s well on his way to becoming one of us.”
“Or at least Will’s.”
Replying that it could wait until the next day, Mulder hugged Scully close before turning off kitchen lights and guiding her toward the bedroom, “bed, please. All this politeness has worn me out.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism …Sassy Sprinklepants
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
He wasn’t sure how he felt about giving the untested duo of Doggett and Harrison a set of keys to his office and complete access to his sacred space containing file cabinet, slide projector and perfectly proportioned to his ass desk chair. He wouldn’t be there to shut down arguments veering in wrong directions, he wouldn’t be there to explain, in exquisite detail, the evolution of Big Foot and Sasquatch, he wouldn’t be there to keep their sticky paws off his stuff.
Wow, his thoughts spiraled a lot faster than he expected, and shaking his head to clear the nonsense as he gathered up his coat and wallet, he thanked that formless god out there in the universe that no one but him would ever know what went through his mind the last three minutes … except for Scully ‘cause try as he might, he’d spill the beans about his mental relapse the moment he walked through the front door and she said the magical words of ‘hey there.’
He was so completely under her spell it would have been pathetic on anyone but him.
Handing over the keys, he told them not to burn shit down then headed out for his week of beach life, Scully, Will and seven Scully monikered rugrats in tow.
&&&&&&&&
“Kids, we have a mission.”
Sam and Matt looked at each other, excitement building given any kind of mission from Mulder usually turned out to be fairly messy, fairly fun, and fairly entertaining when he got in trouble with Aunt Dana once she found out about the mission, “are you going to get busted by Aunt Dana for the mission, Uncle Mudler?”
“One can only hope, Samuel.”
Speaking for everyone present and one un-present Betsy, who was in the bathroom, “we’re in.”
The mission turned out to be one of many that week. This one in particular was to simply get Aunt Dana to say ‘Good Lord and sweet baby Jesus’ five times. It took Jake two hours before he triumphantly raised his hands in victory even before Scully could let the last syllable fall from her lips, “Uncle Mudler! Mission accomplished!”
Scully got a large chocolate milkshake for her troubles.
The rest of the week was peppered with shouts of ‘Mission Accomplished’ or in Toby and Betsy’s case, “Mission Accompissed.”
Scully was amused for the most part because she never knew what was coming and why but it always made her smile once she found out.
“Mulder, where are you getting this stuff from?”
“The secret vault of Mudlerness.”
She simply smiled and took Betsy by the hand, “come on, small fry, let’s go see how big of a castle we can build before your cousin wakes up.”
Slapping his hands together, Mulder looked at the older kids, “and I think we should see who can slide farthest up the beach after wakeboarding in.”
Needless to say, the children creamed the adult amongst them, hands down, given Mulder was heavy enough to skid to a stop while the kids skimmed nearly to Scully every time.
&&&&&&&&
Then the rains came.
And Scully took over.
“We are going shopping. Everyone in the cars.”
“Where are we going?”
“Wal-mart. We need some games in this place so everybody gets one pick and then we come back here and play them until we need to eat.”
“Can we make pizzas?”
“Can we make cupcakes?”
“Can we make bananas?” Scully looked at Toby when he suggested that one and he shrugged, “I want a banana.”
Mulder ruffled his hair, “we’ll get you some bananas.”
Everyone found a game, Mulder found three, Scully found two and when she realized she picked out the same ones as Hannah, she high-fived her niece, “great minds, Hannah, great minds.”
“Totally, Aunt Dana.”
Groceries shopped for, bananas purchased, they headed home, the day and evening filled with several arguments, one rain-filled beach walk, two tremendous thunderstorms complete with near constant lightning and winds that created waves big enough to swallow all of them up and through Uncle Mudler whole without leaving a trace. Will slept through it all, the rest of them settled eventually, the ocean still churning, the sound carrying in the open windows, lulling even the most restless among them to dreamland.
Mulder nudged Scully and quietly rotated on the bed, swapping head for feet so he could stare down at the seven kids, spread eagle all over a bevy of air mattresses on the floor, sleeping bags strewn accordingly. Scully followed, relishing still in her newfound ability to lay on her stomach after an 11-month hiatus, “what are we doing?”
Her whisper tickled the small hairs by his ears and he grinned, fighting the urge to swat at a non-existent bug, “we are contemplating the family tree.”
“What are we contemplating about the family tree?”
“How we should probably add on to this place to accommodate said family tree. They can’t sleep on our bedroom floor forever.” Rolling to his side to nibble lightly on her ear, “I’d like you to myself every once in awhile.”
Matt’s voice rose from the floor, “dude, we’re trying to sleep here. If you want to make out, go outside, would you?”
Mulder flew away from her on instinct and rolled right off the side of the bed, landing beside Hannah, who only woke because her air mattress shifted, “Uncle Mudler?”
“Go back to sleep, Han, I just fell out of bed.” Quickly kissing her forehead and watching her eyes drop closed immediately, he hauled himself back onto the mattress, amusingly scolding out into the darkness and his oldest nephew’s general direction, “we are not making out.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Goodnight, Matthew.”
Mulder could hear the grin as he called back his own goodnight, then the squish-shift of body turning on air mattress. Meeting Scully’s dancing eyes, “he spends too much time with Dave.”
“We all spend too much time with Dave but none of us can figure out how to not spend too much time with Dave because we all love our Dave time.”
Moving his head close enough to kiss her cheek, “love you, wife.”
“Love you back, husband.”
&&&&&&&&&&
The following morning, Scully woke up to find everyone accounted for but Mulder. Shifting slowly, carefully, she grabbed the baby monitor, turned it on and ventured forth, using the sure step of someone who picked her way through body parts daily, silent thanking prayer to the man upstairs that these were all attached to living, breathing beings and not in a warehouse basement in Tucson like the last time. Wood planks smooth beneath her feet, she saw Mulder’s silhouette through the back door, sun just beginning to debate coming up, sky the lightest shade of night before giving into day. Traversing three rugs and a wayward pile of flipflops, she slid the screen open and settled herself in beside him, bumping his arm gently, “morning.”
He didn’t meet her rolling shoulder, or gravel-y, half-awake quiet word, instead waving the phone in his hand slightly, pointing it towards the water, knuckles white around black plastic, “when am I going to learn not to answer the phone.”
This did not bode well and reaching under his elbow, she wrapped fingers lightly around his wrist, “probably never. What happened? Was it Skinner?”
“Yeah, apparently Doggett and Harrison, am I allowed to call them Bud and Lou or would that be wrong at this stage of the game, I don’t know but regardless, Doggett and Harrison somehow got caught underground, dealt with some kind of venomous lizard/snake hybrid thing, came up temporarily blinded, and are now both in the hospital recovering.”
Scully snorted. She hadn’t meant to but snort she did, giggling into his shoulder for a moment before getting her breath back, “my God, you really did manage to find Mulder and Scully 2.0, didn’t you?”
“Skinner is going to quit, I swear. He’s going to talk to them and go through that final report and he’s just gonna …” grinning out towards the water, Mulder shook his head, “holy hell, Scully, he may just say ‘fuck it’, sweep his desk clean, flip off his J. Edgar Hoover picture and storm out, demanding a God-damned latte on his way out the door.”
Staring for half a second forward, she waggled her head back and forth a few times, then raised an eyebrow at her clarifying mental picture of descriptive storm-out, “I’d kind of like to see that actually.”
Before he could answer back that he’d pay $100 minimum to see it, the murmur of waking children and one pre-whimpering baby floated through the monitor sitting on the step beside her. Mulder, fully awake and ready to spend their last day at the beach being the unequivocal leader of ragtag misfit sandcastle builders and boogie boarders, stood to take care of diaper changing and tooth brushing, “want to start breakfast? We’ll be down to help in a few.”
Standing as well, “chocolate chip pancakes or strawberry waffles?”
“Yes.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert …Dinosaurs and Cannibalism
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
“So, what are you going to do with Walter on Saturday?”
He’d forgotten he was in charge of the stepfather-in-law, “shit.”
“You can always just take him to work, have him watch you look up stuff, steal books from various locations in the Hoover Building. I’ve done it. It’s a very scintillating Saturday activity.”
Taking the book from her lap and tossing it over his shoulder, he crawled up her body, settling nicely between thighs, nose buried beside ear, “when do I get to have sex with you again?”
“Did the word ‘scintillating’ do it for you?”
“Your eyes, your voice, your smell, your breathing did it for me but yeah, scintillating just ramped it up a notch or two.”
Knowing Will was in the bedroom with baby monitor on, she slid her hands down the back of his cut-off sweats, elastic shot, easy access, fingers squeezing before he comprehended, “you should take these off.”
Well, now, that overwhelmed any and all capacity for free thinking so he simply followed orders, stripping himself then her of all impeding clothing, sliding into her slowly, carefully, knowing she’d stop him if something was wrong but something must have been right because the sound lowing from the back of her throat made him dizzy, drove his hips forward, lips attached to the pulsing vein in her neck, debating for the briefest of moments if he ever really had to leave such a perfect heaven, to eat, to drink, to breathe.
Then Scully’s hips shifted, legs pulling him just a little bit closer, pushing a little bit further, driving a little bit harder …
How he had survived these last months without this, he’d never know.
As he relished in the wet warmth, Scully began talking to him, low things, dirty things, shifting from sentences to fragments to single-word filth, what she’d been dreaming of, awake and asleep, for several months and centuries, words punctuated with deeper thrusts and heavier breaths, one bead of sweat leading to pools and rivers, skin sliding, invoking God and Mulder and God again, endless string of ramped up conversation, Mulder joining, describing, seeing stars, blinking amazement, closing eyes to everything but her, slapping thwap to make her find the edge, fly over, fall down in gasping growl as he followed, filling, finishing, dropping back, forehead against her collar bone, her fingers drawing across smooth muscle and hot skin, “I love you.”
“Not as much as I love you.”
&&&&&&&&&
It was only after they’d gotten up for midnight snacks and to feed Will, the pair sitting on the couch, dim and quiet, baby in her arms still eating in his sleep, that Mulder returned to the question posed several hours earlier, “you know, maybe we’ll just take the kids to the zoo or the aquarium. Skinner’ll like that and it’ll kill the whole day and the kids won’t be running around while everybody gets ready.”
“I think he’ll like that, too, and you’ll get to see the manatees and the turtles.”
“And the stingrays. Don’t forget the stingrays.”
“And the stingrays.” Giving him a smile, “you’re going to buy a stuffed stingray, aren’t you?”
“Darn tootin’, little miss.” Lightly wiggling Will’s toes, “the boy here needs to start his collection of stuff-ed vicious sea animals.” Given the dark and the 11:45pm time frame, he kept hold of his son’s feet while glancing up at her through half-closed lids, “so, I have a question and you have to promise not to yell or get all pissy about it.”
“Are you going to ask me something that will guarantee me to break my promise?”
“I don’t think so but you never know.”
Shifting the baby, she gave him a side-eye glance, “fire away, poor boy.”
“We just had sex and it was really, really good sex but we didn’t use any protection and what … well, what if we just made Will there a little brother or sister?”
She had been expecting a monumental nonsense or fiery death daggers from the sky type question and hearing this instead, she gave him a smile, “then I get a little rounder and clumsier and hungrier and eventually we buy a house.”
“But what about work?”
“As you have told me, on multiple occasions and with varying displays of our bank account, I don’t need to work to live anymore.” Wiggling her feet in his direction until he let go of his son’s and took his wife’s, “and while I love what I do, I will gladly give it up for my kids … our kids.”
He had been expecting vast amounts of brimstone to descend from the heavens instead of quiet exchange in regards to his second question and asking his third, “will you expect me to do the same?”
“I expect you to remain safely out of harm’s way. You will think of your kid or kids first and foremost and come home every night whole and perfect like you are right now.” Tilting her head towards him, eye twinkling, “well, except for that mustard on your chin. You can probably clean that off whenever you like.”
After removing mustard, he licked his finger, then gave her a smile, “so should we try to have another one then? ‘Cause we can go give it a whirl right now.”
And out came her little grimace, “I think I need a day to recover a little. Rusty muscles and all.”
“We are totally naming our band ‘Rusty Muscles’ and you can’t stop me.”
&&&&&&&&&
They had to borrow the Gunmen’s van to get everybody to the aquarium, Mulder riding shotgun, because, as Skinner emphatically put it while holding out his hands for the keys, “I’ve seen you drive the Beltway. Hand them over.”
And hand them he did, wishing he could argue the comment but, knowing full well he did drive the Beltway like a man possessed but so did the rest of the assholes surrounding him doing 90, he kept his mouth shut and relished the idea of not having to do anything but discuss verboten things like monsters and aliens with those in the car under the age of 14.
“Does everybody have their buddy? Do you know your buddy’s name? Does your buddy know your name?”
Hannah held up her hand, firmly grasping Toby, “I have my buddy and I’m calling him Iggy today.”
“Does he know his name is Iggy?”
Toby responded with a giggle, “I’m Iggy and she’s Sprinkles.”
“What’s with the name change? Witness protection?”
Sam answered before Hannah could, “we all got new names last night. I’m Phineas Fartmonger. Iggy is Ignatius Popperton …”
Mulder laughed, “Iggy Pop. That was your dad’s doing.”
“Yeah but he wouldn’t let us listen to any of the songs.”
“Smart man.”
Sam continued, pointing to Jake, “he’s Peterson J. Jabberwocky. Hannah’s is the best, she’s ‘Sassy Sprinklepants’. Betsy is ‘Big Money Lil’ Bets.” Aiming at poor Graham beside him, “he’s Donald X. Angryeyebrows.”
Graham interjected, “I wasn’t having a very good day.”
“Matt, tell him yours.”
Matt, a head taller than the rest of the kids, shrugged, a half-smile playing on his lips, “Betty Sue Freemont-Freeloader.”
Mulder couldn’t breathe by now and vowed to call them all by their new names until roughly the end of time, “you are all getting t-shirts with your names for Christmas. Swear to Scully’s God.”
Toby, most excellent small fry, “You shouldn’t swear, Uncle Mudler. Mama says you’ll burn in hell if you swear.”
Toby got to eat Mulder’s whipped cream during their afternoon ice cream break.
Finishing pairing up, Betsy claimed Uncle Skimmer, Graham claimed Jake and Jake claimed Graham, leaving Mulder, Matt and Sam to be a manly team that didn’t hold hands but hovered in an orderly fashion around the rest of them, herding wandering pairs back to the crowd and keeping any and all from drowning in the stingray pond.
Skinner never inquired as to why he and Mulder were day-tripping to the aquarium, going along without question or comment, wiping faces, holding sticky hands, eating leftover breadcrusts and sharing popsicles with both Betsy and Toby. He did, however, lean over to Mulder as they were waiting for the kids to finish their last bathroom breaks, “so, should they get some kind of final reward for not spilling whatever beans they’re keeping in?”
Mulder shrugged, “they deserve a gold medal but they’ll be happy with what’s coming.”
Skinner gave him another look, eyebrow raised, “there’d better be pie.”
Rubbing his hands together with a wicked grin, “and adult beverages for later.”
“Thank God.”
&&&&&&&&
Party proclaimed a success by all invited, it was nearly midnight before Will fell asleep in the kitchen in the beat-up, overused, built to last basinet that Maggie kept for all visitors under the age of 1. Mulder parked his son in the corner by the island and turned to his wife, the swaying red-head who had taken her first sip of Punch a scant 25 minutes ago, “drunk yet?”
“I do not get drunk, Mulder, I get tipsy.” And tip she did, feet not receiving walking orders after her body heard them loud and clear. Luckily, the wall and Skinner caught her, “see, tipsy.”
“Oh, my God.” With a grin, he gently took her arms and sat her down in a chair, “you should not be this weird already. You’ve only had half a glass.”
“But I have been without the liquors for almost a year. My body has forgotten.” Sticking her tongue out, “is it blue?”
“Oh, it’s blue, all right, and you had the liquors a week and a half ago.”
“It takes years of practice, Mudler. One night of the liquors does not a tolerant system make.” Sticking her tongue back out, “it is blue. Can you imagine if I breast-fed Will right now? He would be blue.” Giggling, she slapped Mulder’s thigh, “he would be blue, Mudler. Blue!”
Sometimes, he wished he had a video camera to capture these precious moments, “yes, very blue and the lovely protective services people would come and take him away because we made him blue.” Leaving her to discuss the merits of blue babies with herself, he turned to Maggie, “your daughter manages to say ‘one night of the liquors does not a tolerant system make’ but can’t remember my name.” Sitting down at the table, “where the hell did she come from?”
“Fire sale at J.C. Penney.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies …The Dessert
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
“Do you know that there is a dinosaur that lives in a lake in Georgia?”
Mulder nearly dropped his cards, “Scully!”
“There is, Mulder. I did not want to tell you while we were there and once we got back, I could not tell you but right now, I am going to tell you that I think you just might have been right about that one.”
The table fell silent immediately, Charlie asking, “a dinosaur?”
“Yes. He smashed our boat to bits,” putting her cards down in lady-like fashion, she crashed her palms together, missing the first time but connecting the second, “to bits and bits and it sank and we sat on a rock and ducks scared us and Mulder said he would eat me if he had to.” Suddenly covering her mouth, of course finding contact first time out the gate and slapping herself in the process, “that sounded dirty. I did not mean eat me but eat me eat me, like gnaw on my thigh bone and hope to get rescued before he had to eat my liver which reminds me of this other …”
Mulder stopped her flailing arms vainly attempting to find the vicinity of her liver with pointed finger, then his liver with pointed finger, “Scully, Scully, shh, hey, remember, we don’t talk about things like that at the dinner table.”
“But we already ate dinner and had Dessert …. Desssert … Dessseeeerrt … Mama, do you have anymore dessert … damn it, Dessert … I made sure to caspitalize it this time.”
Mulder’s hands grabbed for her again, successfully pinning her arms to the table, light but firm, “stop waving those fingers around, you’re gonna take out Charlie’s eye or knock poor Ruth to the ground.”
Charlie, for his part in all this, was dying next to his sister. He’d never seen her drink the Punch before and the ruckus she was causing had him laughing to the point of tears, “is she always like this? She’s only had one glass. What’s she like on two?”
Seeing Scully had forgotten dinosaurs and cannibalism for the moment, he let got of her hands, handing her cards back, “no idea. I’m usually rambling on about pie, from what I hear.”
Maggie smiled and slid a glass of water in Scully’s direction, “your sister is usually fairly floppy by now but her M.O. seems to have changed since Will was born so we will just have to watch and see what happens. Meanwhile, since I’m winning, I’d like to get back to the game.”
Back to the game indeed, until 10 minutes had passed and Mulder felt something sliding under his arm. Looking down, he saw slender fingers and scarred knuckles trying to sneak cards from his hand. Whispering at her now leaning-in figure, “what are you doing?”
Whispering, not really whispering, her answer, “I need your eights and your trees, I mean threes.”
The whole table could hear her.
Mulder looked at the messy cards in her hand, “you need ones and fours.”
“I know that but I like your eights and trees better. Eights and threes are all curvy and look like snowmen but fours and ones look like knives and scalpels and sharp things and I do not like sharp things. Too many stitches and hospitals for sharp things. Pointy. Points hurt.” Pulling up her shirt suddenly to reveal a fading scar down her side, “see, Charlie, pointy things do that.”
Charlie sobered immediately, also seeing the puckered gunshot wound of one Peyton Ritter, “Day?”
Scully let her shirt drop back down, oblivious to her brother’s reaction, “snowmen are more fun than knives and definitely more fun than bullets, let me tell you … bullets move fast and they hurt, zing, burn right through you …” Looking around, she smiled, “Ma, are you sure you ran out of cake?” When no one answered, Scully swung her head around, everyone a blur until Charlie, where she stopped, discovering he wasn’t laughing anymore, “are you okay?”
“I’ve just … I’ve never seen your … gunshot … thing.”
She threw her arms around her little brother, “I am fine, Charlie Bucket, never fear. I have Mulder and Walter and Frohippy and Langley and Byers watching out for me.” Hugging him around the neck, “and if everybody else fails, still got you, right?”
He hugged her close, “yeah, Day, you’ve still got me.”
Expecting an answer, all he got was a snort and a giggle, “fails … snails … whales … bales … of hay … day … Day.” Sitting up quickly, knocking Charlie’s chin with the top of her very hard head, “Day. That is my name, ask me again and I will tell you the same.”
Her giggles got them over the awkward bullet wound, liver eating, cannibalistic, Jurassic lean the evening was taking, and making sure she quit while she was ahead, Mulder moved her punch away, far out of the reach of her once again wandering hands, “I told you, you can’t have my cards.”
“But I like yours better.”
And those damn blue eyes batted blurrily at him and without another thought, he gave her his hand, “if you lose with what I just gave you, you’re making dinner for a week.”
Attempting and failing to keep the cards between her fingers, “big ass lasagna, coming up.”
She lost.
Then fell asleep against his shoulder while they played another 20 minutes.
Getting her to the spare room and settling her in, Mulder returned to the game packing up, “hey now, don’t I at least get one round to redeem the last hand Scully massacred?”
Frohike smacked him on the arm, “next time, my friend. Langly is about to crash and Byers already called not it on carrying him inside so we either leave him here or head out now.” Raising an eyebrow, “and that puts him sharing a room with you two.”
“Goodbye, Frohippy.”
Soon, Maggie was giving Will his bottle, and sneaking him upstairs to sleep in the portable crib already conveniently set up beside her and Skinner’s bed. Allowing his child his first Grandma sleepover, he looked over at Charlie, “feel like raiding the leftovers?”
Already headed to the fridge, “way ahead of you, Mulder.” The meatballs were just as good cold and coupled with large glasses of milk, both men were settled on the porch within minutes, Charlie swallowing his mouthful before, “what’s on your mind?”
Looking at his brother-in-law, “I’m sorry for tonight. We’re usually pretty good at keeping work separate from here, but apparently the Punch got the better of your sister.”
“It’s okay, although I gotta say, it was a little unsettling to see her scars like that. I know she’s been shot but to actually see it …” he shuddered slightly then returned to his food, taking another forkful, “let’s just say, I’m going to go home and thank Sarah for having the nice, safe job she has.” When Mulder didn’t respond, “can I ask you something?”
“I can’t guarantee I can answer but I’ll try.”
“How often are you two really in danger? I mean, serious, I could very well die today danger?”
After chewing, swallowing, drinking, clearing his throat, Mulder answered, “your sister, not very often anymore but me … probably a couple times a month at least, depending on the case.”
With the frankness only a little brother could have, “then why do you still do it?”
He couldn’t come up with an answer.
&&&&&&&&
Scully woke to Maggie warming up a bottle and humming in the kitchen outside the bedroom door. Getting up, she found she was, while not hungover, incredibly thirsty. Joining her mother and son, she drank a full glass of water while running her fingers over Will’s perfect handful of scalp, downy softness beneath her palm, “how did he sleep?”
“Like a baby.” Maggie nuzzled his forehead, “he only woke up once with a wet diaper but otherwise, he let us sleep until a few minutes ago.”
“He’s a good boy like that.” Fingers leaving Will, she moved to the fridge, “I don’t have a hangover, but I’m going to eat my cold tacos anyway. Want one?”
“No, thank you. Walter will be down soon and he’ll make the oatmeal and we’ll eat then.”
Taco en route to her mouth, she stopped, “should I wait?”
Maggie eyed the congealed burrito bean paste solidified on the end of the tortilla three inches from her daughter’s face, “I’d prefer not to watch you eat that while I’m eating, thank you.”
With a grin, Scully bit down, beans and rice threatening to spill down her chin, “but it’s so good.”
“You are not my child.”
Continuing her eating, she moved to the back door, “did you know Mulder and Charlie are out here?”
“Are they in the hammock together?”
Her Mexican mouthful nearly exited her nose, “thank God, no.”
“Someone should probably go wake them up so they can get to work.”
Seeing potential in such a suggestion, she scooted outside, leaning over her brother upside-down, nose to nose, “Charlie? Charlie? Time to get up.” When he didn’t move, she said it louder, “Charlie!” then got the hell out of the way, knowing he would jump up immediately.
He did not disappoint.
He also stumbled forward after he stood and ran right into the deck railing, hanging over for a moment before, “damn it, Dana, you trying to kill me?!”
“Just scare the hell out of you. Did it work?”
He remained where he was, head hanging over, “what time is it and if it’s before 6, you’re going to suffer.”
“It’s 5:54.”
Groaning, “Good Lord, woman, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“You have to go to work.”
“I’m having a meatball hangover. I can’t be expected to think today.”
Walking over to him, she tapped the back of his knees with her toe and watching him collapse to the ground, still hanging onto the railing, “you finished them?”
“Your husband helped.”
She truly enjoyed hearing him called that and smiling, “he probably had three while you scarfed the other fifteen.”
“Guilty.” Letting go of the rail, he leaned against the support, “you should scare him, too. Let him join me in my utter loathing of you at the moment.”
With a ‘pshaw’ and a ‘guffaw’ she leaned over Mulder the same way but this time, the moment she said his name, he opened his eyes and grinned, “hi there, wife.”
“Morning, husband.”
Charlie groaned, “both of you just shut it. You’re disgusting at 6am.”
“I thought we were disgusting all the time.”
Charlie simply lay down on the deck, “just let me go back to sleep in peace, would you?”
the fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential …The Newbies
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
you know what? I had sudden doubts about posting an entire chapter about a dessert and I honestly sat and thought about if I should, then I remembered … this is Life and the Dessert is Life at our house … It should be at yours, too …
&&&&&&&&&&
Scully had to laugh. Mulder came home and talked her ear off the first day Harrison worked with him, “my God, Scully, I want to ask where she’s plugged in so I can disconnect her from her power source every so often. You were never this … this …” hands flapping helplessly, “exuberant.”
“Regretting it yet?”
By now, his shoes were off, and she was pressed against him in a full-body hug, his chin vibrating her skull, “I’ll give her time, but really, she’s the damn Energizer bunny gone wild.”
“Have you switched over to decaf yet?”
“Five seconds after she left the interview, I stole a case from the kitchen upstairs. Skinner saw me and asked, but when I told him Agent Harrison had been by, he held the door to the elevator for me and wished me luck.”
Smiling into his chest, “well, it’s Thursday, and you know what Thursday means, don’t you?”
“Cerulean blue punch and failed attempts at sobriety?”
“And one baby.”
“Rock, paper, scissors you for who’s staying straight and who’s drinking the Kool-Aid?”
Mulder lost.
“This could get dangerous, Mulder. I haven’t had a drop of punch in something like 11 months.”
“Dangerous … or the most entertaining thing anyone has seen in a very long time.”
Finally pulling away, grin widening with every moment, “I pumped enough to last Will through tomorrow, but I only get one glass, understand?”
“This should be a blast.”
&&&&&&&&
Not seriously concerned but wondering just the same, “Mulder, does my looking forward to blue-tongued liquor make me an alcoholic?”
“Personally, I think you just look forward to the hangover breakfast. It’s really the only time you don’t have to explain to anyone why you are making a Pedro’s Taco Hut run at 7:15am.”
“Think we should buy some now so I can just reheat them? Save me a step in the process?”
Detouring to their taco haven, “why not.”
Arriving with baby, bag of tacos, and Mulder, Scully entered the house and stopped dead in the doorway, “oh … my … God … she made cheese-stuffed Italian sausage meatballs and garlic bread and …” taking a deep sniff of the air around her, “oh, lord in heaven, she made the Dessert.”
Following with a bit of trepidation given her sudden and intensely frightening nasal superpowers, “what the hell is the dessert?”
Scully didn’t answer, sliding on stocking feet into the kitchen, calling out loudly, “did you use Heath bars or almond and chocolate?”
Maggie’s voice drifted down from upstairs, “Heath bars. What do you take me for, your Aunt Bethany?”
“I withdraw the question.”
Mulder, behind her with a baby and oodles of curiosity, given the mention of Heath bars, “I ask again, what the hell is the dessert?”
Skinner took Will from him, “a frightening looking layered concoction of pudding and Cool Whip and cake and the aforementioned Heath bars. There are two of them in the fridge, and Maggie swears there won’t be any left by tomorrow morning.”
Scully beelined for the refrigerator, opening the door to survey heaven in twin glass dishes, “was there any cake left over?”
“Maggie hid it somewhere.”
Scully sniffed deeply again, bloodhounds around the world instantly jealous of her flaring nostrils, her movements calculated and slow around the kitchen until she stopped at the pan drawer, “gotcha, crazy woman.” Opening it, she turned over the two nested pans and the Tupperware bowl, finding four pieces of dark chocolate cake, one of which immediately went into Scully’s mouth, “like three layers could stop me.”
The two men looked on in befuddlement, “who is that woman?”
Stashing the tacos in the fridge without really looking at the dessert, “I think she’s Scully, but the devilish mumbling is confusing me.”
“Is Maggie going to kill her when she comes in?”
Scully heard them and laughed, “it’s ‘Find the Cake.’ If you find it, you get it. If you don’t, you chase your little brother around until someone falls down in exhaustion.”
Maggie popped around the corner, spying her daughter, “are you going to share at all?”
“Under normal circumstance, highly doubtful.” She did, however, hand over the plate with two large chunks still left, “but since I’m generous to a fault, I will split my winnings in half.”
Mulder took the plate with the smallest amount of apprehension, “why am I still afraid you’ll bite my hand off?”
“You know me.” Kissing his cheek, a crumb or three of cake at the corner of her mouth, “and once again, it’s ‘Find the Cake.’ Mom makes the dessert we all devour, but there’s always cake leftover. She hides it. It turns us all against each other, and then it’s Battle Royale, followed by name-calling and pouting. It’s tradition.”
Mulder turned to his mother-in-law, “you know you’re all crazy, right?”
“You married her, remember that.”
Chewing his mouthful of cake, Mulder’s eyes wobbled in ecstasy, “and I am so glad I did. Had I not, I wouldn’t be related to the baker who made this.” Wondering if he should make a grab for the last piece, “why have none of them ever tasted like this before?”
With a smile, seeing the stealing debate happening, Maggie split the last piece, handing one to her daughter and one to him, “because the Dessert cake is special cake. If you ask any more questions, you’ll get none of the finished product.”
“My God, between Betty and her Punch and you and the Dessert, do you like what I did there, by the way, you can actually hear the capital letters in both Punch and Dessert, you’re on your way to an entire meal where no one knows what they’re eating.”
She swatted him on the backside with the towel she was carrying, “wait until we hit Kitchen Sink night. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, get out of the way.”
Looking towards Scully, whose eyes seemed to glow at the prospect of Kitchen Sink night, “what the hell is Kitchen Sink night?”
&&&&&&&&&
Charlie showed up a little while later, Sarah and their kids gone for the night at her mother’s house, “got enough for me?”
Maggie looked up as her youngest son waltzed into the kitchen, “of course, but I thought you were working tonight?”
“Transformer blew about half an hour ago. I can’t do the updates, and the drive to Sarah’s parents is too long just to turn around and come home, so I thought I’d try to get a halfway decent meal here.”
“Hey, Charlie?”
Turning towards the voice, “yeah, Mulder?”
“Do you know about the Dessert?”
Charlie, for his part, flashed back to 10 years old, and his eyes began darting around the kitchen, reaching for the closest cupboard, pulling the door open so fast it bounced back at him, “where is it? Did you find it already? Please tell me you didn’t find it already?”
Scully laughed at him, bouncing Will against her shoulder lightly, hoping for something approaching a healthy yet non-spitty-up burp, “I beat you by an hour, Charlie.”
“Damn it.” Turning to survey his mother critically, “if I give you $20, can you bake me my own cake, like, right now?”
Mulder would have hugged all of them at that moment if he could have.
&&&&&&&&&
The meatballs were phenomenal, warm, delectable, oozing cheese in every bite, he would have eaten more, but in the middle of dinner, Maggie got up and removed the bowls from the fridge, displaying the Dessert for all to see.
Scully and Charlie slow their chewing slightly.
Finally, dinner was put away, and after the dishes were cleared, the dessert bowls came out. Mulder feared for himself as well as the ladies who just arrived, that they would all be trampled in the clamor to the concoction, but heaping helpings were passed out in an orderly fashion, spoons used instead of scooping fingers, and he breathed a sigh of relief that he most likely would not have to throw himself between Charlie and Scully because someone got an extra dollop of pudding.
Then he scooped up a spoonful.
And ate it.
And forgot the world around him.
There had never been a Dessert, good God-damn, he was thinking in capitals as well as speaking in them, that had ever made him feel this good.
It was cool and slurpy and crunchy and cake-y and whippy and …
Laughter penetrated his cloudy haze and looking up, found all the ladies and Charlie staring at both him and Skinner. Now, he didn’t want to see that look on Skinner’s face ever again, but at this moment in time, he imagined he was wearing the same orgasmic, ‘if I didn’t just get fucked but good’ smile and glad he wasn’t alone in his embarrassment, grinned wider, “this isn’t too bad.”
Napkins, hastily grabbed dishtowels, and one pacifier flew at his head.
He kept eating.
Good to her word, there was nothing left in either dessert bowl by the time the Punch came out. Mulder leaned over to Scully, who was, hand to God, licking her bowl, “you got room in there for Punch?”
“There’s always room for Punch, and given I’ve been off the stuff for a year, I don’t think I’ll be drinking that much anyway.” Then, kissing him full on the mouth, pudding taste everywhere, “you sure you’re okay being designated diaper-er tonight?”
He would have answered, but he was too busy pulling her close to return the kiss, Charlie whining about them in the background while Janet began shuffling the deck.
the fourth series reads as follows:
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
Home after dark, waking up in the dark, getting dressed, eating, changing a wayward diaper, double locking front door, Mulder stretched as he walked towards the car, wondering just how long his day would be quiet.
Not as long as he expected.
Apparently, his day was good for 1 hour, 22 minutes then hell arrived in the form of short, blond pep.
He’d called Agent Harrison as soon as he made it to the office, leaving her a message saying he’d like to meet with her sometime in the next day or two to discuss her file and the work of the X-Files. Instead of calling, setting up a time, following protocol, she arrived in the basement with a speedy click of heels and teeth … lots of white, smiling teeth.
That’s all he saw of her at first: rows of white, pearly teeth, straight, shiny.
Then her hand arrived, out to shake before he managed to stand up straight, brush off his donut crumbs, remember how to focus on something more than four inches from his face. Taken aback, he stared at the tiny hand, cheap watch, sleeve of suit jacket pulled up above narrow wrist …
Holy fuck …
Scully had re-enlisted in the form of Leyla Harrison.
Just, as he would learn in the next two minutes, a little, well, hell, a shitload more, enthusiastic.
Scully had begun arguing with him within the first two minutes.
Agent Harrison gushed about the X-Files and all their virtues and beauty for the first five minutes before he finally cut her off, “hi. You must be Agent Harrison. I didn’t expect you here quite so quickly. Would you like to sit down?”
Oh, God, as soon as the words left his mouth, he cringed. He offered her a chair. A place to settle in, talk until she used all the air in the room, suffocated him with words of undying devotion.
He let her ramble a few more minutes before pulling her back in again, “I’m sorry, Agent Harrison, would you like a cup of tea, coffee?”
Giving her something to hold did the trick, her hands occupied, her mouth slowing until he could process the words and sentences rolling towards him, “yes, thank you, Agent Mulder, coffee, please. I’m sorry.” Looking down at the cup he handed her moments later, “I have a tendency to blather, a lot, when I meet people I admire.”
And with that, she held her tongue.
Good lord, he actually liked her.
He really’d been hoping he wouldn’t.
But he did.
At least for now.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
She left an hour and a half later and the first thing Mulder did was shut the door and call Scully, “what did you do to me?”
And feeling just a little bit saucy and a wee bit riled up, “nothing today but I have plans for you that’ll make your eyes roll back in your head.”
His mouth went dry for the slightest second then, grinning, “tell me more.”
Watching her son finish his bottle, she stood and headed into the kitchen, “I will once you get home but for right now, what did I do to you that I don’t know I did to you?”
“You sent me a woman who is enthusiastic, doesn’t shut up, adores everything about anything weird, supernatural, or out there, and thinks that both you and I are the shit.”
“Sorry. I’ll keep combing the files. There has to be somebody out there who hates you with every fiber of their being. I’ll find them. Don’t worry.”
“Sarcasm is your thing, Scully, let me tell you.” Sitting back in his chair, looking up at the sparse pencils still stuck in his ceiling, he made a mental note to add more in the future, “I will say though, once I began sifting through her babble, I found some good theories, ideas, directions I might not have taken.”
“Did you show her some cases?”
“Yeah. She did pretty well given she’s only every really worked in accounting. She’ll need a lot of handholding in the field but I’m seriously considering trying her out.” Because she was Scully and he was Mulder, he answered her before she could even ask, “but she doesn’t hold a candle to you.”
Seriously, she had to get these hormones under control, “I was going to ask if she believed in Big Blue.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you were. So, you want to hear about her?”
“No. It’ll be more fun with a live re-enactment.”
Not wanting to let her go just yet, “then tell me what you’re doing with that kid of ours.”
“We got up late so he just finished his bottle and I’m about to eat,” having warmed frozen pancakes and rolled them around some science-oven sausages, “dirty things for breakfast.”
“Sausages in sweaters! Without me? How dare you.”
She liked to make him smile.
&&&&&&&&&
John Doggett, on the other hand, called back and set up a time to meet, the next day, 1:30 in the afternoon.
He arrived 3 minutes, 10 seconds early and stepped off the elevator with about as much trepidation as a seasoned police officer could muster surrounded by copy paper, handcarts, and the prospect of working with Fox Mulder. Namely, he figured he’d get to see what all the fuss was about surrounding the X-files and what he hoped would be a decent cup of coffee. He’d been searching out re-assignment to the DC area, looking for a change of scenery, a change of boss, a change of his life in general …
And why not do the interview? It would be a temporary assignment, get him used to the city, allow him to meet other agents, see if the Hoover Building tickled his fancy.
Then he registered the yelling.
But it wasn’t angry yelling …
It was a good old-fashioned shouting match argument like the ones he used to have with his guys back before the Bureau.
Eyebrow raising slightly then dropping back in place, he listened to mention of bats, invisible snakes, bite marks, and some science-y jargon he could neither spell nor repeat even with gun to head. Wondering if he should just get the hell out now, the voices suddenly stopped, then the door opened further, “ahhh, see, I told you I thought I heard the elevator.”
John Doggett was confronted with a cautiously friendly Scully smile as she stepped slightly aside, “come on in … welcome to the basement.” Holding out her hand once he was inside, “I’m Agent Dana Scully and my partner there is Fox Mulder. If you heard mention of giant vampire bats, don’t hold it against him, the bite marks are remarkable similar.”
Mulder moved to shake his hand yet directed his words at Scully, “so you admit vampire bats exist, just not giant ones?”
Leaning over the car seat stationed safely dead center of a cluttered desk, she made sure their arguing hadn’t woken Will, “I never said they didn’t, Mulder. Common, hairy-legged, and white winged are well document in their species and while I don’t subscribe to there being ones with six-foot wingspans and the ability to drain a person of their entire blood supply, their faces have a slight resemblance to pigs and that amuses me enough to allow you to ramble on without me killing you with a stapler.”
Glancing sidelong at a silent Doggett, “he’s still here.”
“That’s a good sign.” Finally turning her attention to the new guy, “would you like a cup of coffee?”
&&&&&&&&&
They talked to him for over an hour, drilling him about cases, opinions, past alliances, and why he drank his coffee black. Mulder analyzed every little quirking finger twitch, non-invasive nose scratch, and random, rapid blink. Scully kept Mulder reigned in enough to not send Doggett screaming into the hallway.
Doggett wondered what the hell kind of circus ride he might be getting himself into and how long it would be before both the agents in front of him were carted off by the lovely men in white coats with caged-lined vans.
Finally, the pair seemed to have finished their interrogation and Doggett got to open his mouth, his first sentence being, “I think the pair of you are thick as thieves and crazy to boot.”
Honest-to-God, Scully liked him and she thought that maybe Mulder might, too, “I keep his crazy in check.”
“She needs a little crazy every now and then. It works well for both of us.”
Doggett couldn’t help it. He had to smile, hang his head while doing it mind you, but smile, “I can only promise that I’ll do my best to solve these cases. I won’t be buying into the whole paranormal thing and I will never believe that Casper or Chuckie did it in the basement with magic herbs and a summoning circle but I will catch the bad guys, I guarantee it.”
Mulder folded his arm in a loose gesture of agreement to Scully’s unspoken question hanging between them, “he knows what a summoning circle is and whether he learned it on TV or from his hippie big sister, he used it properly in the sentence.”
“Mulder.”
Holding his hand out to Doggett, “feel like giving it a trial run?”
Without hesitation, he shook back, “when do I start?”
the fourth series reads as follows:
To catch up: First series…Second series… Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
Sitting on the back porch of the beach house, sun lower than the roof, throwing them in shade and a semi-cool breeze, Mulder veed his knees up, propping Will, his miniscule baby bum wrapped in an impossibly small diaper, on his thighs, tiny feet wiggling and occasionally making contact with Mulder’s belly.
“You have the most adorable feet,” catching one and leaning forward to kiss the heel, then the barely there toes, “but don’t tell your mother, she’ll get jealous.”
Scully, files stacked on her folded legs, “I shall contain my rage.” Holding the top folder up, “John Doggett. New York cop, detective, now works for the FBI in Investigation. Military man, Marine …”
Mulder cut her off, mouth still nibbling Will’s feet, “he’s got that damn DoD rec letter. It just doesn’t sit well.”
“I know,” pulling the letter out, “but it looks like a standard thing and remember, Skinner picked him for us originally. I trust that, Mulder, almost as much as I trust if you’d have done it.”
Sitting back, now playing with Will’s finally fattening legs, “how old is he?”
“40, I think.”
“Beats the toddlers I’ve dealt with so far. Married?”
“Divorced. One son who died a few years back.” She’d forgotten that part and with sudden shooting fear in her heart, she looked over to make sure Will was still there, “um, it’s why he left New York.”
Mulder felt the same chest-compressing panic and with a deep breath, kept an eye on his boy as he nodded, “I’d like to talk to him.”
Simultaneously cheering and praying, she opened a second folder, “and then we have Leyla Harrison. She dropped her resume off to Skinner a few days ago and mom dropped it off yesterday morning. She’s incredibly green but apparently has enough enthusiasm to keep the home fires burning in the basement for decades to come.”
“So, she’s you but might actually believe me one day?”
She would have thrown the file at him had Will not been within papercut vicinity, so she settled for a smirking glare and full-on ‘bite me’ eyebrow, “don’t push it, Sparky. You may never see me naked again.”
“I’ll take that bet ‘cause I don’t think you’d be able to follow through.”
Returning to her papers, “yeah, probably not.”
Mulder held his finger near Will’s hand until matchstick grippers grabbed him tightly, squeezing the bejeezus out of pointer, well, Will-size bejeezus, which, really, felt like almost nothing and fairly close to heaven at the same time, “your mama likes me.”
“Don’t listen to him, Will, I’m just here for the beach house.”
Shaking his head and grinning at both wife and son, “read me out this Harrison person. Let’s see if she’ll make it through the first week.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&
It took a fair amount of arguing, but in the end, Mulder begrudgingly admitted that both Doggett and Harrison might possibly be a semi-decent fit for his life’s work. That out of the way, he followed Scully into the house, ready to eat the dinner, ready to bathe the kid, ready to snuggle with the wife, ready to spend one more night on vacation in king-size perfection.
It wasn’t until they’d reached the snuggling part that the lightning began flashing off in the distance, thunder rumbling low at first but becoming louder and closer with every minute. Soon, the windows were rattling as the wind and rain pummeled the little house. Will, like his parents, didn’t sleep through the onslaught, but unlike his parents, Will cried his pitiful cry, Scully nuzzling him close, fitting him safely between her breasts, close to her heart, leaning back on the pillows Mulder shoved behind her. Repeatedly kissing Will’s head and whispering nonsense love to fall on his ears, she glanced over, seeing Mulder settling beside her, “I’ve changed my mind. We should move here right now.”
“Give me time to train the newbies and ween myself from the guns and the monsters and we’ll talk.
Knowing that was about as likely to happen as her ever liking pie, she sank into the fantasy for a moment, then, “how about we meet in the middle and just come back here in a few weeks? Maybe bring the rest of the kids out sometime.”
“I’d like that. Have sandcastle contests and beach bonfires and hot dogs and s’mores …” trailing off, “damn it, I’m hungry again.”
With a chuckle, “I’ll take half of whatever you go get, if you don’t mind.”
“Sandwiches, coming up.”
&&&&&&&
Once fed, half-asleep and jelly-boned, Mulder slipped an arm over her belly, soft whisper in her ear, “I could get used to this.”
Pulled back from oblivious dreamland, she asked into the darkness, “aren’t you already used to this?”
“I question perfection, Scully, you should know that by now.”
Turning her head enough to kiss his temple, “don’t question this, Mulder. Whatever else happens in that head of yours, don’t question this … ever.”
“We should have another.”
“Kid or cottage?”
“Kid. Cottage. Both. House in Baja to surf whenever we want, kids to teach.”
“You’re dreaming, aren’t you?”
Breathing out a long sigh that signaled full-on sleep mere moments away, “you taught me how to hope, Scully. Unleashed a monster.”
She was awake the rest of the night, visions of a future out of her reach forefront in her ever tumbling mind.
&&&&&&&&&&&
They were so close to having a completely phone-free weekend but right there, smack dab in the middle of breakfast, Scully’s phone vibrated: across the table, onto the floor, plastic thump, then across the wood, stopping only when it hit a rug. Both stared at it silently, just the other side of amazed, “persistent little bugger, isn’t it?”
“I’m not looking at it until we are finished eating.”
Not about to cross her, he did set a little timer in his head to keep track of just how long the phone hiatus would last, knowing her and her familial connections wouldn’t allow her to ignore a possible issue with one of them for more than a few minutes.
3 minutes, 49 seconds.
She did pretty well in all honesty and he didn’t chide her about getting up, leaning over, retrieving electronic nonsense from the floor, “don’t say a word.”
“I’m not.”
But he would say more later, when she was a few hours from having caved to technology and could see the humor in the 3 minutes and 49 seconds.
“So, who’s yelling at you?”
“Mom.” Listening to the voice mail, she smiled, “she says she’s planning a surprise party for Walter in a few weeks and you are expected to keep him out of the house beforehand.”
Mulder studied the air above her head for a moment, then, “instead of dread, I feel something akin to gleeful anticipation. Is that wrong?”
“You’re going to make him crazy for the whole day, aren’t you?”
Nodding with an enthusiasm that made her just a little bit nervous, “Oh, your mother never should have given me her Walter.”
&&&&&&&&
Waiting until the very last possible moment to start the drive home, Mulder locked the door behind them, Scully standing still beside him, Will in her arms. When she didn’t move down the steps to the Jeep, he peered around her shoulder, “Scully?”
And then he saw tears streaming down her cheeks, soaking chin, shirt, kid, “do we really have to go home?”
He grabbed them both in the softest, bone-crushing hug he could, “you are adorable, you know that?”
One giant sniff later, she got herself under control, “I hate hormones.”
Squeezing her a second time, “come on, woman, we’ll be back in two weeks and how does staying a whole week sound?”
“Perfect.” Moving towards the car, “and just to remind you, if you breathe a word about this to anyone, I swear to you, you will never, ever, see me naked.”
Holding her hand down the steps, “we just had this talk yesterday, didn’t we?”
“How about I will never, ever, ever, share another bag of M&Ms with you so long as we both shall live.”
“Now that’s just mean.”
Life is back, jam-packed with M&Ms, Scully family shenanigans, terrible things, and wonderous ones … this series picks up maybe two weeks to a month after series three finished …
Sorry for the delay … life happens … hope you enjoy :)
First series…Second series …Third series
&&&&&&&&
“How close to home are you?”
“About ten minutes but at my rate of anger, I could make it there in four if I ran.”
Scully, baby strapped to her chest, paper plate of apples resting on his sleeping noggin as she read paperwork, “do you need to go to the shooting range before you get here? Take out some aggression on paper bad guys and ballistic foam?”
Mulder, for his part, was sitting in summer traffic, sweltering in the heat, Jeep air turned off to save gas given his empty light came on 24 miles ago and panic not yet overtaking anger at sullen, bitching temporary agents who told him, the ballsy pair they were, that they didn’t think a job in the basement would lead to anything but a dead end.
“I do not need the shooting range but I do need a hefty glass of something cold and to hold the kid for a few minutes. You, too, if available, but at least the kid.”
“Starting to regret this whole ‘find minions so you can come home alive’ scenario yet?”
“Ask me once,” car horn blaring and Mulder yelling obscenities out the windows, colorful and plentiful before coming back on the line, “I’ve showered and gotten gas.”
“How low are you?”
“I’ve got about three miles left in the golden zone, then I might be calling for a refill. Prep the baby for a rescue mission.”
“I’m using him to balance my apples right now but afterwards I’ll put on his cape and we’ll be good to go.”
Finally smiling, having seen the apple balancing act before, “have you read the files yet?”
“Going through them again now. I hate to say it but that Doggett guy is starting to look really good. There’s also a woman named Harrison in here that seems decent as well. Doggett would be the gritty, no-nonsense one and she could play the role of you.” Finishing her last bite, she tossed the plate on the counter and smudge-wiped apple juice drippings from her son’s nose, “we’ll argue it when you get home.”
Finally, finally, finally having pulled far enough along in traffic to coast his way into the gas station, he breathed a stifling sigh of humidity-laden relief, “it’s fucking hot out here. Why aren’t we at the beach again?”
Hearing the sound of the gas pump, she sighed herself at not having to perform requested rescue mission in the 100-degree heat, “give me twenty minutes to pack and we can be on the road by 7. I’ll bring the files, you bring the lead foot.”
“Don’t wave that temptation in my face, young lady. Too hot to fight it.”
“Who said I was kidding?”
&&&&&&&&
Good to her word, she met him at the door twenty minutes later, baby stuff, her stuff, his stuff, food stuff, all that stuff he liked ‘cause it was stuff, piled beside her, “go change your pants. We leave in five.”
He stopped on the front stoop, “you were waiting for me.”
“Always.” Smiling and kissing him as she reached out to pull him inside, “now get your ass upstairs.”
He would have done more to her but given they were on the front porch and in broad daylight and he was soaked to his socks and underwear in sweat and there was a baby between them and stuff would be poking him in the back and his parts, he simply returned the kiss and hauled up the steps.
Sooner than later, he was back in the car, driving east, feeling the pull of a cottage and his family together, work disappearing behind him in the distance, except for the pile of files Scully had stashed in her bag and they weren’t talking about those just yet. Will was sleeping in his seat, facing away from them, mirror showing he was still there and not crawling through the luggage in the trunk. Scully was offering peanut M&Ms to Mulder one at a time, intermingling red licorice twists and grapes, an odd mix in general but highly enjoyed because he had the chance to kiss her fingers, lick her knuckles, taste her skin, “are you trying to make me fat?”
“Trying to keep you awake … besides, the grapes are healthy. It all evens out in the end.”
“I remember a time when you were better at math and made me eat more salad.”
“Would you like me to throw the M&Ms out the window?”
“God, no. Feed me more.”
&&&&&&&&&
Pulling over once for diaper changing and once for real food, they rolled up to the house just before midnight, the ocean air filling the car 20 minutes before they found the driveway, the waves waiting to greet them until he’d shut off the Jeep, giving an instant, relaxed atmosphere and friendly darkness to the late night.
“Did you pack my suit?”
“Don’t want to swim naked in the ocean?”
Reaching across and poking her cheek, “you are saucy as hell today which I love but sand issues notwithstanding, I don’t want fish and sharks nibbling on my balls.”
She couldn’t respond to that except to nod, her grin giddy and free, “I have your suit, never fear. I remember the diatribe on sharks and your balls, believe me.”
“Want me to empty the car before you bring Will in?”
“All you have to grab is his crib, his diaper bag and that red suitcase. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.”
“Aye, aye, cap’n.”
He carried the necessary stuffs in in one major armful and Scully followed with Will, all three soon in respective beds, sheets changed, windows open, baby snoring lightly on his back, Scully snuggled into Mulder, thin pajama barrier between them, “I’ve forgotten how much I love it here.”
Moving her head back to kiss his chin, she kept her voice low, “We need to come here more often so that doesn’t happen.”
“Are you proposing we winter-fy this place and move permanently?”
“Remember what happens when either of us it tempted?”
“We get married; we make babies; we take spur of the moment trips to our seaside shack …”
Interrupting briefly as she guided his hand to her mouth then down her neck, “you buy seaside shacks and show up in the middle of Iowa with stuff and say we’re going on a road trip …”
“I am quite wonderful, aren’t I?”
Lifting her head enough to make sure Will was good and asleep, she wiggled and shifted, turned and waggled until pajamas hit the ground in a silent earthquake of things to come, “a few more weeks and I’ll be able to show you just how wonderful you are but for right now, I can still do plenty of things to you.”
Glad to be able to just touch her, the prospect of anything more made him grin, “two weeks.”
&&&&&&&&&&
“It’s the end of June. Why is the water not warm?”
“Have your toes frozen off yet?”
“Well, no, but …”
Mulder grinned, digging his feet into the sand, “then it’s warm enough.”
“Not for a month-old baby, it’s not.”
“Well, he’ll get his water wings next summer or at the earliest, you’ll both be in by August. The ocean’s a big place, woman, it needs time to heat.”
Wishing she could swim, she instead handed Will to Mulder, gave him that defiant look that sent every one of his molecules into overdrive, then walked into the waves, going as far as her shorts hem would allow, then racing backwards out of reach of the waves. Coming back to him, legs wet, toes coated in sand, “I never said it was too cold for me.”
Glancing no further than her nipples showing through her tank top, “it’s a little too cold for them.”
Head back, laughing, “you have a one-track mind, Agent Mulder.”
“And it’s tracked on you. Now, we’ve got things to do: sunnin’ things and swimmin’ things and eatin’ things and nappin’ things. Which do you propose we do first?”
Settling Will in his shaded nest, “the sunnin’ things. Lotion me up.”
“Ahh, just the words I wanted to hear.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines…Worry…Again…Betsy…Sam…Anything for Five Minutes…Batteries …but I’m not…
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Mulder dropped Sam off at his house, hugging him tightly before sending him off to take a nap, their draining afternoon catching up to his still-recovering body quickly. Joanna looked at Mulder critically, “did he do okay?”
“He did great. He didn’t say much but I wasn’t expecting a deluge anyway.”
“I don’t need to know what he said but as long as you tell me he’s alright, I’ll believe you.”
Just wanting to go home and cry, he gave he a smile, “he will be all right.”
She hugged him then, sending her love home to Scully and the kids, setting a time for the next Saturday before waiting until he’d gotten in his car and waved, to shut the front door.
Mulder, for his part, felt like hell and was truly grateful that Scully didn’t ask anything except, “you doing okay?”
“I’m doing okay.”
&&&&&&&&&&
The phone rang at 12:30am and Scully, already awake and feeding the babies, grabbed it on its second ring, utter terror freezing her insides, especially once she saw it was Dave’s number, “Is everything all right? What’s wrong?”
Sam’s voice, small and quiet, “whenever I fall asleep, I see the arms moving over me, from while I was on the table. How do I stop seeing them?”
Still in panic mode, “one second. Are you okay? Do you need help?”
“I’m okay. I just woke up from a nightmare and already had the phone in my hand and the idea to call you.” She could hear the tears on the back of his words, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you.”
“No. Nononono, Sam, it’s fine. I was awake with the twins anyways. I just want to make sure you don’t need any help over there, first. I’m fine to talk … as long as you like.”
“I should go. I’m sorry.”
“Samuel James, do not hang up the phone.”
Full name business now.
“But it was stupid. I should have just called you in …”
She blew right over him, her voice drowning out his small one, “I still have that dream. I see instruments and needles being passed over me while I stare up at the ceiling and can’t move, can’t push the hands away.”
It was silent for almost a minute, but she could still hear him breathing so she waited, patiently, her heart thudding entirely too regularly for such an irregular conversation, especially one with a 12-year-old.
“They won’t ever go away?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve learned that when I have that dream, I think to myself, in the dream, that I’m not really alone. Uncle Mudler is sleeping next to me and I just keep telling myself that, until I finally wake up and see Uncle Mudler, drooling on me, and everything is okay.”
“But the dreams are so real. I wake up feeling their hands on me, feel the spots where they held me down.”
“In the beginning, yes, they seemed so real that I didn’t want to go to sleep, ever, but then, after a very long time, I decided to tell myself, over and over again, before I went to bed, that I was safe and happy and whatever I dreamed wasn’t real. Over and over, repeating and repeating, that it would just be a dream.”
“Do you still do that now?”
She had never told anyone about the mantra or what she was about to say as well, “every night. Every night I pray that everyone I know and love will be protected and then I fall asleep thinking, ‘whatever I dream, isn’t real.’”
Sam, sitting in the living room, having no idea how he got downstairs in the first place, “did you hear sounds, when you came back?”
Scully simply nodded her head, realizing she was telling her nephew things she had never even told her husband, “I did. I heard train whistles, real faint but definitely whistles. I heard ticking clocks and random high-pitched buzzing. I don’t hear much anymore but occasionally, I’ll hear a thudding thump that I can’t explain. Like I’m hearing a second heartbeat in my head but I have no idea what it is.”
Jumping subjects with ease, “My mom dropped a handful of silverware after dinner and I was just coming down the stairs and I … I peed my pants.” His embarrassment came through the phone clearly, “I didn’t … I didn’t tell anyone. I just went and changed.”
She could feel him clamming up, closing off, about to flee from the conversation because of his confession of indiscretion. Pulling him back in her quiet way, “you want to hear something?”
Hesitating, ready to say ‘goodnight’ and go stay awake until morning, “yeah.”
“On our birthday, your uncle woke me up and scared me with one of those pink coconut Sno-Balls. He just wanted to wish me ‘happy birthday’ but instead, I had to throw up because of the twins and because he scared me and I had to move fast, I didn’t have time to tighten my muscles and … you can never tell anyone this, do you understand me … I peed my pants, too. I was throwing up and peeing and it was a nightmare that we will never speak of but I survived and so will you and we don’t have to talk about me or you peeing ever again.”
While not laughing, she could hear his smile, “we kinda have our own weird, little club now, don’t we?”
“I guess we do. We’ll need t-shirts.”
“Maybe they can have toilets on them.”
Smiling as well, “they most certainly can.”
Another long pause later, he yawned, “I’m sorry for waking you up.”
“You can always wake me up, you understand? Always.” Listening to him yawn a second time, “are you going to go to bed now?”
“I think so.”
“They’re just dreams, don’t forget. Your mom and dad are just down the hall and I’m right here if you need me. Take the phone with you, if you want to, so you can call right away and we can talk pee again.”
Quiet on his end.
“I love you, Samuel James Scully. Don’t let anybody tell you different.”
“I love you, too.”
&&&&&&&&&
Scully settled the twins back down, then, turning off lights as she went, found the bed in the dark with her knees, then crawled in, Mulder, in his Mulder way, shifting to find her. In a voice entirely too clear and awake for having been sound asleep a moment before, “need some hugs?”
The first tear was already rolling down her nose, dropping between them with the faintest of sounds as it hit the sheets, “yes, please.” After being shifted and squeezed to the proper level, he continued to hold her close, “I forgot about the baby monitor.”
“It’s okay. I have promptly forgotten everything I heard. Your secrets are safe.”
Her breath dampened his neck as she spoke, the sound warm and muffled, “they really shouldn’t be secrets in the first place. I’m trying to get Sam to tell me what happened when I realize I still haven’t told you.” Pushing her nose into him, face smashed in a futile attempt to get closer to him, “it was so bright in that room, my eyes throb just thinking about it.”
Hand now moving over her back, finding skin under shirt, “you don’t have to do this … at least not now.”
“Yes, I do.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines…Worry…Again…Betsy…Sam…Anything for Five Minutes …Batteries
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Two weeks later, the twins were just beginning to realize they were part of a world that was not their mother’s womb, waking up, finding a rhythm, beginning to focus on any face that drifted into their view. Scully was up and around, moving a little slow but back to picking up Will, shuffling to the living room, hiking the stairs, and, by God, able to see her feet again.
Granted, she had to lean forward a little but there were there, all pale and crooked-toed but definitely hers and definitely in need of some nail polish and a good pumice stone scrub. Looking at Mulder as she casually mentioned this, he grinned at her, expertly wrapping Jamie in his blanket, rainbow-colored dinosaurs the cotton of choice today, “you want me to paint your toenails?”
“It is your last day of ‘maternity leave.’ Her smile grew wide enough to crinkle her eyes, “I’ll do yours if you do mine.”
Now shaking his head, “how is it that I can’t deny you a damn thing, even touching those feet of yours.”
“If I recall correctly, you’ve done a lot more than just touch those feet.”
Instantly recalling several scenarios, he pickup up Jamie, gently setting the impossibly small child against his shoulder, “very true. You win. I’ll do them tonight but you are not painting my toenails in return.”
“Can I at least pumice them? Those callouses on the back are going to rub my calves raw one of these nights.”
“Oh, yeah. Those are gross. Do whatever you want with those.” Coming to stand over her, “having fun?”
She was sitting at the kitchen table, breast pump firmly attached, making some kind of list, Casey asleep in the bouncy seat on the table and Will in his high chair, throwing Cheerios at himself, “I am writing an epic poem about the eruption of Vesuvius and the subsequent burial of Pompeii, all from the point of view of a tiny dog who lived in a restaurant on the Via dell’Abbondanze.”
“So, typical day with the Scully children.”
That got her attention, “the Scully children?”
He had been debating this for awhile, ever since Will had made his appearance, but he’d never mentioned it until now, “yeah.” Pulling up a chair to sit, he patted Jamie on the back and shifted him half an inch to the left, before settling in, “these kids, right now, are Mulders but I think, and don’t stop me or argue for a second, please, because I have been debating this for 363 days now, but I think that I’d like to have a discussion of making us all Scully’s. We joked about it before and you didn’t change your name and it wouldn’t be hard to change mine or theirs.”
In a universe where she wasn’t attached to a machine being milked like a cow and her oldest son wasn’t giggling with a Cheerio hanging from his nose and Mulder didn’t look so intently serious she had to wonder if he was back under some kind of mind-control, she would have jumped up, called him an idiot and moved him off the subject so fast his head would have spun.
Instead, she quietly sat there, matching his gaze, the tension between them suddenly solid and imposing, “you want to what?”
“I can’t be a Mulder anymore, Scully, or at least I can’t saddle these kids with that name.” She could see the internal debate he’d had about this, could read his face better than any book or case file, “I have so much baggage in my past and I just … they don’t need whatever comes with the name.”
“Mulder.”
Gesturing to her, ironic smile abounding, “see, it’ll never quite go away anyways so it’s not like they won’t hear it and know. They’ll just match the rest of their cousins when it comes to lining up in alphabetical order.”
Scully reached over to switch off the pump, sending the room into a quiet filled only with Will babble, “they are Mulders. I’m not removing their name just because your past if filled with things better left unsaid. You are their father and they will have your name. If you want to fight me on this, you will have to fight me on this.”
Moving to stand, to walk away, to hide the frustrated tears that had suddenly collected at the corner of her eyes, she hastily wiped away stray milk from around her nipple, slipped her shirt back over her head, and was stopped from leaving the room by Mulder’s hand on her arm, “don’t go.”
Feeling a fire she hadn’t felt in awhile, she turned, eyes sharp and clear, “you will not hide your children from five hundred years of Mulder history. So you had a forty year blip. It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
“That’s the problem, Scully. I’m not actually a Mulder.”
And she stopped dead. Information that should have sank in three years ago finally penetrated and the revelation actually made her sway back and forth, gripping the chair back for support.
He waited.
Finally, “you are your mother’s child.”
“But I’m not Bill Mulder’s son. It bothers me that I’m giving our kids a false background and name. The minute I saw Will, the idea began but now, with the other two, as well as what happened, I can’t just let it go.”
How had this never come up before?
And how could she ever decide something like this with a three-minute warning, “you say you’ve been thinking about this for 363 days so I need more than three minutes.”
He stood, carefully holding Jamie as he leaned over to kiss her forehead, meet her skin with his lips, whisper carefully into that beautiful brain of hers, “no rush. We can talk about it later and for as long as you like.”
“But there’s no changing your mind, is there? In the time it took to throw me for a loop, you solidified your position, didn’t you?”
God, she knew him too well, “You really can read my mind.”
Hand to his face, thumb running over his cheekbone, back and forth in a slow, steady rhythm, “sometimes, I wish I could.”
“It would probably help to see what’s going on in there that I can’t find the words to make you understand.”
Deep breath in, she pressed the side of her nose to his, eyes shutting, “we will talk soon, okay, and we’ll figure out the words.”
&&&&&&&&&&
He didn’t push her and she didn’t ask, letting ideas and possibilities hover in the background.
Sunday was the broods first family dinner and coincidently, Will’s first birthday; tiny cake and boisterous singing the dessert plan of the afternoon. G.G. had constructed a birthday cake to top all birthday cakes and Maggie had made the Dessert and it was a feast to end all feasts. Once G.G. had gotten her fill of babies for a minute, allowed others to hold and coddle the three smallest of the group, she settled back in the couch, hands folded on her lap, mischievously playful glint in her eye as she looked at the tired parents, “so, kids, tell me … what did Jamie and Casey weigh?”
Mulder suddenly wasn’t tired anymore, sitting up, his eyes wide, “holy crap. I totally forgot.”
Scully, information always at the ready, told the older woman, skepticism prepped and waiting in the wings, “both five pounds; one, eight ounces, one, twelve.”
Looking at Walter, “dear, can you go grab me the note I left on the fridge last time I was here, please?”
Obeying his mother, Skinner returned and handed it to her, grinning, “you’re about to see Mulder explode.”
The smile on Mulder’s face was threatening to crack his head in two, “are you kidding?”
G.G. laughed, handing it to him, “there’s a little something else on there as well.”
Once he took the note and read it, his smile faded, turning into that inquisitive head tilting, half wonder, half shock, full-on beautiful gaze that never failed to make Scully’s insides melt. Handing it to Scully, “read that one out loud, please.”
Somehow, some mysterious magic was tingling her ears, making the hairs on her neck stand up. Opening, she read out quietly, “one boy, one girl, 5 lbs. 8 oz., 5 lbs. 12 oz. – May 8 – sometime in the late morning.”
Mulder’s head did not explode but it had the potential to: eyes wide enough to fall out; mouth open to the point where, had anyone had the forethought to have M&Ms on hand, could have pitched them in; eyebrows high enough to nearly disappear in his slightly receding hairline, “ho- ly- shit!”
Then Betsy, “Jesus! Mary! And Joseph!”
Will screeched, “Da!”
Scully shook her head, “G.G., he’s never going to let you leave now.”
Mulder, already sidling up beside her, “damn right. I’m moving her into our spare room.”
&&&&&&&
Sam, who had been rather quiet all night, not so much playing with his cousins as hovering, watching, herding them into one room, was eventually cornered by Scully, caught in the kitchen, alone, retrieving a juice box for Toby, “hey, Sam, how’s it going?”
To his credit, he didn’t jump but to Scully’s credit, she made plenty of noise walking into the kitchen as not to scare him. Turning, box clutched in his hand, “it’s going okay.”
Giving him the most unimposing, friendly, aunt-type smile she could muster, “are you nervous about tomorrow?”
He’d been cleared of any wrong-doing in relation to Krycek and Spender, only having to speak to detectives the first few days and having only one follow-up visit to the doctor. He’d been gaining weight back slowly and his bruises were fading, only slightly shadowing rings left around his upper arms from the shackles he’d been in, and the scar on the back of his neck. He had stubbornly refused to talk to any therapist except his Uncle Mudler and his Aunt Dana. Uncle Mudler, in turn, had repeatedly stated that he wasn’t a certified therapist and there were more qualified people out there in the world to help him but Sam had simply shaken his head, “I want to talk to you and Aunt Dana, only.”
Scully, with trepidation and her throat threatening to squeeze shut, had told Sam, that first day he came to visit the twins at the apartment, six days after he’d been returned, “if you need to talk about anything, I’m here.” Swallowing hard, she also told him, words nearly failing her, given she did not, under nearly any circumstance, discuss this, “they took me, too, years ago. I was gone for three months and I may be the only one who knows what you’re feeling.”
Sam had gone white and speechless, standing statuesque in front of her, cheekbones prominent on his sallow face.
She waited quietly.
Until …
“Did they … did you … you were in the room?”
Scully nodded, her heart slowing as she realized, even though it may pain her to talk about it, Sam was desperate for someone to understand, “we can start talking whenever you want to. If you want to wait a few weeks, get a grip on things, that’s fine or it can be right now. It’s totally up to you.”
Seeing her hand twitch out to touch him, he backed up a step, “can we wait a little while?”
“Of course.” Making sure to meet his eye for her next statement, “you’re going to be okay. Everything’s gonna be all right. Can you trust me when I say that?”
Sam didn’t have to think long, agreeing with a head bob and a, ‘yeah.’
“Good. Now, do you want to go in and hold one of the babies?”
His eyes lit up briefly, “yes, please.”
And he did, holding Jamie first, then Casey, stroking their heads and telling them about all their cousins. He then borrowed Will to go build block towers with Hannah and Betsy in Will’s bedroom.
Now, tomorrow, he would be having his first ‘session’ with Uncle Mudler over a brown-bag lunch while watching the boats on the Potomac, Sam’s choice.
Answering her question of ‘are you nervous?’ with his own trepidatious nod and staccato deep-breath, “yeah.”
“That’s okay. Luckily, he’s Uncle Mudler, so, when you’re done, there’ll probably be silly string and fart jokes.”
Finally, he cracked a genuine smile, “I hope so.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines…Worry…Again…Betsy…Sam …Anything for Five Minutes
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
The next two days were a blur for Sam. He answered a few questions, drifting off during others, stoically ignore several, outright told the detectives to kiss his ass once, sobbed in his mother’s arms hourly and, by the time they got home, took refuge in his room, only family allowed in.
Meanwhile, at the Scully-Mulder ‘three babies, no waiting’ household, Mulder heard about Sam and, giving his wife and kids a sad smile, bent down to kiss each one, “who would you prefer come over here and hang out while I go talk to Sam?”
“Anyone’s fine. Except for Bill. I’m not breastfeeding in front of Bill.”
“So Frohike can come over here and ogle you? He’ll love that.”
Sticking her tongue out at him and making Will giggle in the process, “I am two days post trying to be split in half by your big-headed progeny. Do not mess with me.”
It was Maggie for the win and Mulder, an hour later, was knocking on Dave’s door. Mulder tilted his head at his cousin-in-law once he answered the door, giving him a sympathetic, apologetic look, “you look like you’ve had as much sleep as I’ve had.”
Ushering him in, he locked the door behind, “Sam wakes up screaming or worse, he wakes up standing over our bed or suddenly appears in the living room, sound asleep but staring at us, completely helpless against whatever’s happening in his head.”
“Can I see him now or is he asleep?”
“Asleep but he’ll be up soon enough. Jo is dropping the girls off at Sarah’s for the night so they can get some sleep and just,” rubbing his face, “forget about this for a little while.”
Mulder reached out, hand to Dave’s arm, “can we talk then?”
Rueful smile creasing his mouth for a moment, “I was wondering when you’d say that.” Settling at the kitchen table, Dave asked, blunt-force as always, “did you leave your gun by Sam on purpose?”
Without pretense, Mulder nodded, “yeah. I didn’t have time to come up with more than leave it next to him and hope for a miracle. I was actually praying Scully would somehow appear non-threatening and be able to come outside and stand by him but … well … fate had other plans but it worked.”
“That was an awful big gamble to play with my son and an awful big burden.”
Mulder felt horrible to his core and told Dave this, “he had Betsy. I knew he’d make me put the gun down. Sam was a million to one chance. I honestly never expected him to fire but if he at least held the gun steady, I might be able to get at my ankle piece but just … Scully and Sam saved the day.”
“What would have happened if none of this had worked out the way it did?”
Sam, having stolen across the living room, appeared suddenly at their elbows, answering quietly, “they were going to take Will and the twins. He said he wanted his grandchildren, to teach them, prepare them.” Putting his hand on the back of his neck, “and they put something in my neck and told me that I was theirs now, that I would have to do whatever they wanted.” Mulder reached out to him but Sam shied away, “I don’t remember them putting me on the porch but suddenly, they had Betsy and I could think clearly and all I saw was Uncle Mudler put the gun down and … and … I knew what I had to do.”
Studying him for a moment, “Sam, why did you ask your dad to have me teach you how to shoot?”
Sam had only ever said that he wanted to be like Uncle Skimmer and Uncle Mudler when he grew up, which had been enough at the time for several indulgent, serious-minded, safety-filled, multi-afternoon trips to the FBI shooting range. He’d been a quick learn, steady hand keeping the bullets where they were supposed to.
He hadn’t flinched at the first pull of the trigger and Mulder was thoroughly impressed. Even Dave looked stricken the moment the gun went off in his own hand, having decided to learn alongside his son. Sam had listened, Sam had absorbed, Sam had learned.
And Sam had applied that learning.
When he didn’t answer, Mulder asked again, a little more forceful this time, a little more demanding, and Sam looked at him, answering his uncle, “I had a dream, lots of dreams, actually, that one of us would be taken away and that I needed to learn to protect us. Sometimes the shadow men took Betsy, sometimes it was Hannah or Aunt Maggie but usually it was me or Will. I needed a way to fight if that ever happened.”
Dave had his son in his arms and both were crying, one silent, one quaking, as Mulder stared past them at nothing, his mind reaching its limits for rational thought.
Once all had calmed down, Mulder looked at Sam, the boy finally allowing Mulder to touch his arm, “I know you’ve been asked this already but would you mind if I asked you something again?” Seeing Sam nod, “okay. When you were gone, what kind of room were you in?”
“A lot of the time, I was in hotel rooms or in cars but I remember spending a long time in a small, white room, on a table. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t scream and I couldn’t,” he faltered here, turning red and looking away from his uncle’s gaze to the floor, “I couldn’t tell them I had to use the bathroom.”
Dave had his arm around Sam’s shoulder, trying to keep his anger at the world in check, and squeezing, “it’s okay. No one else has to know anything you don’t want them to know, okay?” Looking at Mulder, “but Uncle Mudler is here to help you so how about we promise that whatever you say, we won’t tell anyone else?”
Mulder interrupted, “unless it’s really important, all right?” Looking at Dave, “I’m probably going to have to bring Scully in on all of this.”
Sam looked at his uncle, “you can tell them what you want. I just don’t want Matt or any of the kids finding out that I had to shit my pants.”
He said it so matter-of-fact, that Mulder burst out laughing, grabbing Sam and kissing his forehead, “I love you kid, never forget that.”
Sam, wanted to laugh too, but could only work up to a small smile, “I love you, too, Uncle Mudler, even if that man was your dad.”
He had totally forgotten about that revelation to the family and his smile slacked instantly, “I never knew he was until a few years ago. My mom never wanted me to know and looking back, I’m glad I didn’t know but I’m sorry you’re dealing with my … dealing with my past.”
Sam suddenly turned white, swaying where he sat at the table, “Dad, can I go lay down?”
Without pretense, “is the ringing back?”
Going from white to gray, “yeah. I need to lay down.”
Dave scooped up the five-foot-tall boy like he weighed no more than a feather, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
“I’ll be here.”
Dave returned about ten minutes later, dropping into the kitchen chair to stare at Mulder, “what did they do to him?”
“I don’t know.” Leaning forward, chin on his folded hands, “but you need to get him into therapy as soon as possible and we need to make sure that he knows he did absolutely nothing wrong.” Squinting for a moment in thought, he then asked, “what’s the ringing you mentioned?”
“He has moments of really intense sound and sometimes he smells things that there’s no earthly way he can smell.”
“Like what?”
“Sometimes, it’s the ocean. Sometimes it’s engine fuel, like for a plane, or it’s an apple pie baking. He’s been hearing ticking as well as, um, something he calls thrumming but it’s not in beat with his heart because I’ve had him tap it out and it doesn’t match the rhythm I can feel in his pulse.”
Both lapsed into silence then, fear making them quiet while the world turned around them and Sam slept one floor above.
&&&&&&&&
Skinner showed up at their apartment the next day, elated at his new grandbabies, his large hands delicate against translucent skin and baby-soft skulls, “they had to get your giant heads, didn’t they?” Addressing Mulder with this statement while he carefully settled Jamie against the blanket over his shoulder, “you owe your wife a vacation.”
Scully, half-napping in her bed, Will asleep against her, mumbled her agreement, while Mulder held Casey and nodded, telling his father-in-law quietly, “we’ll get there.”
Skinner returned a sleeping Jamie back in the crib a few minutes later, having satisfied his baby-holding needs for the moment and turned to Mulder, “got a minute?”
Nodding, Mulder put Casey next to her brother, then glanced at Scully, “yeah.”
Gesturing for Mulder to follow him to the hall, Skinner squeaked his shoe accidently and Scully, in a clear voice that had obviously been eavesdropping while half-napping, a skill honed by years of stakeouts with her husband, “I’d like to hear this, please.”
Mulder stopped mid-step, looking down at her in awe, “I will never understand how you can be sleeping and listening at the same time.”
“Twelve years of Catholic school and three years of Med, plus years in a car with you.”
No more explanation was needed.
“What happened?”
Skinner nearly chose to switch subjects and instead mention something mundane about work but knowing she would kill him, literally, with one simple piercing gaze if she ever found out he’d lied, he sighed and pulled something from his pocket, holding it up for Mulder to see, “we found this on Krychek.”
It was the small palm-size device used to control the chips in their necks: used to control Scully on the bridge, used when Mulder went missing, and assumptively what would be used to control their nephew when the time came. Mulder’s inside liquified, then froze, the only thing keeping him from shitting out his entire intestinal tract being his muscles clenching tightly from head to toe.
Scully held it together better than Mulder did, panic gripping her chest for a moment before, “why didn’t you destroy it the minute you found it?”
Keeping his voice low and even, the room maintaining calm, “because I wasn’t sure if we would need it in the future to deal with any … situations … that might come up. I have no idea if this thing controls the spread of the cancer or … whatever other consequences there might be.”
“How would we know how to use it?” Her sarcasm began to rear its ugly head, defiant words flying in the face of towering fear, “did you find the instruction manual?”
One look from Skinner to match her own shut her down, “no, we didn’t, but that doesn’t mean we throw it away. It’s evidence as well as the only connection to those things in your necks, so how about we all calm down and take a deep breath, all right?”
Mulder finally found his words, “I don’t want that thing anywhere near us. If you keep it, it stays at your office.”
Having already planned to lock it up in his safe, he nodded, turning it over in his hands, “but just so you know, I took out the batteries so I can’t accidently make you dance the Macarena or anything.”
Faculties back and fully firing, Mulder looked at him like he had a third arm emerging from his neck, “it fucking runs on batteries?”
“Three double As and a 9-volt.”
“That God-damned motherfucker kept me prisoner with three fucking double A batteries and a 9-volt?! If he hadn’t had a spare pack of Energizer in his pocket at all times, I could have killed that asshole without hesitation?”
Skinner had been dealing with this Mulder for years and took it all in stride, still keeping his voice even and low, “yes, now quiet down so you don’t wake up my grandchildren. You do that and you’ll see me way more pissed than when I found this box.”
Scully had been deep breathing beside them for the last minute and reaching a hand out to tug on Mulder’s jeans, “hey.” When he didn’t look at her, she tried again, “hey.”
Mulder finally turned her way, “yeah?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
For the first time ever, he managed to nail the Scully eyebrow, “what?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Her finger now hooked in the pocket of his pants, “there are so many unknowns in our world but this one,” pointing her other hand at the box still in Skinner’s hands, “this one we have and we can study and we can keep track of. That’s more than anything else in the last nine years.”
He knew when to give in, “you’ve kept track of me for the last nine years.”
“That’s why Skinner gets to keep this one. You’re enough of a handful, and now there are Mulder offspring and more than enough for me to deal with.” She kept her eyes locked on his until his eyebrow lowered and she saw the tension leave his shoulders, “we good?”
“We good.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines…Worry…Again…Betsy …Sam
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Meanwhile, two floors above, Scully was thinking of little else but the pain of two children attempting to exit their very large heads through a very tiny hole, “I can just hold them in until the epidural kicks in.”
The doctor looked at her with a little bit of amusement and a whole lot of sympathy, “you’re a doctor, you know you can’t hold anything in right now. These babies want out and they are most definitely coming out, right now.” He looked at Mulder, who’d been hastily gowned and sanitized, “you’re going to see one of your kids in about five minutes.”
Looking at Scully, who was gripping his hand as another contraction ramped up, “five minutes.”
Gritting her teeth, she nodded, “I can do anything for five minutes.”
“You can do anything for five minutes.”
Luckily, it only took four, and one big push later, there was a brand-new baby girl being held up, Mulder cutting the umbilical cord and forgetting how to speak while Scully, not having much time to admire her now wailing daughter, grit-toothed, clench-jaw growled that the next one was coming and someone better catch it.
The doctor, well aware of everything happening at the exit ramp of one Dana Scully, was ready and waiting. Another push, another low moaning groan, and previous baby girl immediately became the middle child, her little brother joining the world two minutes, 18 seconds after she did.
Mulder was on information overload, and, crying like his two newest children, kissed Scully over and over again before bouncing to his kids, hovering until he was allowed to see them, not wanting to interfere in whatever the doctor was doing.
Scully, for her part, both emerging from and drowning in a cloud of hazy emotion, asked quietly, “are they okay?”
Receiving the most hoped for answer of ‘they look fine, we just want to get them cleaned up and warm for you,’ she joined Mulder in his tears.
And then the world tunneled to the bassinet wheeled over to the side of her bed, one baby soon in her arms, then the next. Mulder, head beside hers, quietly sang a round of ‘Happy Birthday’ before telling the three of them, “I love you.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
The next time Sam woke up, he didn’t panic, finding his father’s face, feeling his mother’s hand on his chest, “did I kill them?”
Skinner, hovering in the background, spoke quietly, “don’t worry about that now.”
“Uncle Skimmer, I had to. I didn’t have any … I didn’t …” He ran out of words as his head began to spin, “I don’t feel good.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
It took until the twins were sleeping together in their bassinet before Scully remembered, looking up suddenly, “Sam?!”
Mulder shushed her immediately, “he’s downstairs. He was having some trouble but they gave him something to help him sleep. I talked to Dave a few minutes ago and he says ‘congratulations’ and he’ll be up later, with Sam if he can.”
“When did he call?”
“You were busy staring at your kids and didn’t notice.” Grinning at her, he kissed her forehead, “your mom is also on her way up.”
“So much for my finely-honed attention to detail.”
“You pushed two kids out two hours ago. You are forgiven.”
She yawned a response and about to ask how long Maggie would be, there was a knock on the door, Maggie asking into the room, “can I come in?” Knowing childbirth quite well, she only stayed long enough to stare at her expanding brood of grandchildren, kissing them both and whispering, “do they have names yet?”
Scully looked from her mother to Mulder, “Not yet. We’ll have that argument later.”
“Don’t get too loud, dear, or you’ll wake the babies.”
Alone once again, Scully’s eyes began drifting shut, “you need to go get Will so he can meet his little brother and sister.”
“I’ll bring him up tomorrow. Your mom is going home and keeping him tonight.”
She was already asleep so Mulder simply turned back to the wee ones wrapped in matching blankets, colored caps keeping their red-fuzzed heads toasty warm.
&&&&&&&&&&&
Sam woke up, and sliding quietly out of bed, he left his room, stocking feet gliding silently across cold tile floor. Evading two nurses and a doctor bent over a file, he rode the elevator two floor up, beelining for a room number he heard his father repeat to his mother when they thought he was asleep. Without knocking, he opened the door to find his very surprised Uncle Mudler and very confused Aunt Dana, “Sam?”
“I wanted to see the babies. Mom and Dad said there was a boy and a girl.”
Mulder quickly and quietly texted Dave that Sam was upstairs with them, then turned to the skin and bones boy with the shadowed eyes and sunken cheeks, “you want to meet them?”
Sam nodded and walked over to Scully, who was holding both babies, her arms held up by cushions, “what are their names?”
“The girl is named Katherine Christina—”
Sam’s smile lit up, his finger going up to pull the blanket down just enough to see her button nose, “K.C. … can we call her ‘Casey’?”
They’d been toying with Kate but Casey it became, “we sure can.”
“Good. I like the name Casey. I’ll have to read her ‘Casey at the Bat’ when she’d old enough.” Moving his finger to the other blanket, seeing his youngest cousin, “what about him?”
“We don’t know yet.” Mulder looked at Scully, who nodded, then back at Sam, “what’s your middle name, Sam?”
“James.”
“Do you like it?”
Sam nodded, “yeah. Even when Mom yells Samuel James, I like it. That says a lot about a name if you don’t mind having it shouted at you from across the yard.”
Scully smiled at her nephew, then looked at Mulder, who gave her a grin, “James it is, but I think, for now, we’ll call him Jamie, just until he grows into his name.”
Running a light finger down Jamie’s nose, Sam looked between his aunt and uncle, “they won’t get them. Nobody’s gonna get them now.”
The room air thickened, the happiness evaporating, “Sam.”
He ignored Mulder, looking intently at Jamie again, “I couldn’t let them get you … or anybody else … ever again.”
Mulder, by now, was crouched down, looking up at Sam, his hands on the boy’s cheeks, “Sam, are you okay?”
Shaking his head, “I don’t think so.”
&&&&&&&&
Sam fell asleep in the second bed, Mulder too unnerved to argue with him about going back to his own room. The twins had woken up crying but Sam didn’t move and Scully made Mulder pull the curtain so if Sam did wake up, he wouldn’t get an eyeful of his half-naked aunt. As she became accustomed to two children latched on at once, she stroked their tiny heads as she spoke quietly to Mulder, “should we worry about Sam right now?”
“He is asleep and safe so I say we worry tomorrow.” Mingling with Scully’s fingers over one baby’s scalp, “Will, Casey, and Jamie. I like it.”
Looking down, watching her 12-hour-old children drifting off, milk bubbles at the corners of their mouths, she smiled, “I like it, too.”
“Should we have some more?”
Turning her tired smile up at him, “Let’s get at least one out of diapers, first, okay?”
“Sure. Fine. Whatever.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines…Worry…Again …Betsy
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
“Agent Mulder, Agent Skinner, guns down, please.”
Skinner hated to do it but knowing he had no other choice, he put the gun on the ground, then backed away from it. Mulder, waiting a heartbeat longer, slowly set the gun down on the deck and moved away as well, shooing Joanna to the side, whispering, “do not go near Sam, do you understand?”
So far gone in shock, she couldn’t blink, couldn’t think, only, as a last, desperate effort, placing her complete trust in one Fox William Mulder, “okay.”
She didn’t stop looking, however, bouncing her gaze from her youngest daughter to her son, landing on each two seconds at a time.
Mulder spoke first, “guns are down. Let her go.”
Krycek’s voice carried to them, “I believe Agent Scully is still inside. Regardless of her pregnancy and her quitting the FBI, I believe she still has a gun and the ability to shoot. I’d like her outside with her hands up.”
Scully, her gun nestled against the side of her belly, under her sweater, walked slowly out, warning the kids to go in the front room. Matt herded them, crouched low, doing as his Aunt Dana told him in a voice he hoped to never hear again.
She would be hugging him extra hard when this was all done.
Once outside, she indicated she would be reaching for her gun and after seeing Spender nod, she slowly took it out, setting it beside Mulder’s then moving away.
“Now that that’s taken care of, you will listen for a moment before we go.” Releasing Betsy, who ran straight for Joanna, cowering behind any legs she could find, he continued, relaxed note in his voice making Mulder wish for a flamethrower, a can of gasoline, and 30 seconds alone with both men. “We see everything, we hear everything, we know everything. You were warned about getting too close to things and you pursued anyway. For that, we took the boy. Next time, he may not come back.”
Mulder drew in a quick breath, “I haven’t been doing anything.’
“Your lackeys have. Ask Agent Reyes if you must. She’ll tell you what she’s been up to.”
Heart pounding, “I’ll quit today. Right now. I’ll never say your name again. I’ll never … I’m done. I quit.” Not caring about himself in the slightest, “please, leave them alone. They haven’t done anything to you. They don’t even know who you are or what you are.”
Spender flashed that insipid, crooked smile of his, “really? They should probably get acquainted with me then, given I will probably be seeing them again.” Looking across the crowd of eleven, “Fox is my son, and suddenly, I feel that getting to know my grandson, William, would be wise.”
Scully felt a pang run through her belly.
“I’ll be dropping in on you from time to time.” Scanning the group a second time, “don’t be alarmed. I’m not the terrible man you think I am.”
Scully felt a second pang, then liquid running down her legs.
“I think, actually, I’d like to start a conversation with the lovely little girl who was out here with me a minute ago; Betsy, I believe her name was.”
Scully felt a searing pain run through her back and belly. With a grunt and a stumble forward, she grabbed Mulder’s arm, “Mulder.”
It was a distraction that had to be sent by God himself and in the momentary confusion of people moving, people helping, people holding Scully upright so she didn’t fall to the deck, a shot rang out, then another, followed by a third and fourth.
&&&&&&&&&&
Before anyone could blink, Sam stepped off the deck and fired a fifth and sixth time, into the bodies of Spender and Krycek, already prone and still.
“Sam! Stop!”
Skinner kept saying his name, following Sam as the boy walked to his kidnappers, “Sam! Stop! It’s Uncle Skimmer. Stop!”
He didn’t fire again but kept moving, finally halting as he stood over the bodies. Skinner made sure to retrieve Krycek’s gun before doing anything else, then, cautiously sliding into Sam’s vision, he told him in a low voice, “Sam. I’m going to check if they are alive. If they move, please, don’t do anything. I’ve got it from here, all right?”
Sam’s jaw was clenched so tight his muscles were vibrating and his face was white and red in turn. He didn’t manage more than a, “mmhmm,” in his throat. Dave was there now, beside Sam, “Sam, it’s me. It’s dad. Can I have the gun, please?”
“Did I do okay?”
Dave’s heart broke but he kept his sob inside as he took the gun and then hugged his son close, “you did just fine.”
“I kept him in my line and remembered to breath out so I wouldn’t shake.”
“I know. You did everything right.”
He passed out in his father’s arms.
&&&&&&&&&&
The neighborhood went crazy. Sunday afternoon in spring had families outside, eating, playing, cleaning up wild-growing yards. Everyone heard the shots and the local police showed up just as the ambulances did, sirens wailing, to carry away the bodies of Alexander Krycek and C.G.B. Spender, whose full name they would happily never know, to the morgue while Scully, Mulder at her side, went to the hospital to give birth to their twins. Sam and Joanna followed close behind in their own ambulance, Dave and Skinner bringing up the rear.
Maggie and Tara calmed the kids, who, thanks to Matt, had remained in the front room, under threat of noogies and atomic wedgies. Charlie and Bill sat on the deck and stared at the backyard, their worlds turned upside down in the span of six bullets fired by a 12-year-old boy.
Sarah simply held Will, wondering how one functioned after a day like today.
&&&&&&&&&
Sam didn’t wake up until he was in the emergency room, and then, seeing his parents, began to cry, “where’s Betsy? Is Betsy okay?”
Dave, not wanting to get in the way of the doctor and nurses, called over their shoulders, moving until he could catch Sam’s gaze, “she’s fine. She’s fine and with Aunt Maggie. I promise.”
Joanna however, didn’t care, reaching around a nurse to make contact, Sam’s ankles the nearest thing she could reach, “hon, it’s mom and she’s okay. She’s probably eating ice cream right now.”
Sam’s eye rolled back in his head, “don’t let them touch her. Don’t let them tou …”
One of the nurses moved her out of the way, “let us work.”
It was then that the monitors began going off.
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines…Worry …Again
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Mulder had thought it was unbearable when Scully was gone for three months.
This time, it was excruciating. Previously, he’d only had to deal with his own feeling and Maggie’s on the rare occasions he saw her. Now he was surrounded by the pain of the family going through this for a second time.
A second time.
He did this to the family a second time.
Scully finally had to take Will home, get him reacquainted with his bed and his schedule, Maggie in tow to help when Mulder wasn’t there. Coming home after another fruitless day of running down dead-end leads on one C.G.B. Spender and his fucking minion, he hugged Maggie goodbye, then headed to the bedroom, where Scully was reading books to their son, “hey there.”
Glancing up, she knew she shouldn’t ask but she couldn’t stop herself, “nothing?”
Every day it was nothing.
“Not today. Maybe tomorrow.”
Tomorrow would be nothing as well.
“Mom wants us to go to church on Sunday with her. She’s got everybody coming, even Jo. You okay with that?”
He’d been working 14 hours a day without a break, three weeks straight, “I can spare a few hours.”
Gesturing him with a wave of her fingers, “come here and give us a hug. Your son has been asking for you all day.”
That made him smile, in spite of everything. First giving Scully her kiss, he then picked up Will, who immediately grabbed Mulder’s face and, in the clear, slurry diction of an almost one-year old, “Da.”
“Ahhh.” Snuggling the boy, then tucking him neatly in the crook of his arm, “that’s my boy.”
“Da. Da. Da. Da.”
He would cry if he had it in him but given he used up his allotment of tears in the shower every morning, allowing his despairing and smothered panic to emerge only once a day and only when alone, he glanced at Scully, his nose buried in the fresh scent of clean baby hair, “I need to record that and play it over and over whenever I feel like crap.”
She knew about the showers but not mentioning it, she instead tilted her head, “we can do it tonight.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Enormous. Water-logged. Tired. Not tired. Same as yesterday.” Running a hand over her now unfathomably large belly, “I realized today that there can’t be any possible way that I’ll ever fit into anything I have ever owned, ever again.”
“We’ll be chasing after three kids. We’ll both be skinny as rails by the twins’ first birthday.”
“I have forgotten what my feet look like.”
Seeing her still-drying hair from her recent shower, he knelt down, Will still in his arms, and kissed each of her toes, “I haven’t. You still have some of the cutest toes I’ve ever seen.”
She chose that moment to crack them all, a quick succession of pops and creaks that made him cringe, shoot an eyebrow at her over the crest of her belly while she grinned at him, “as an added bonus, they make noise.”
“You need to push these kids out so I can chase you around the house.”
“Due time, Agent Mulder. Due time.”
&&&&&&&&&
Scully ignored her bedrest for church and Maggie’s on Sunday, needing to be there with everyone and justifying it with the reasoning that the twins’ due date was less than two weeks away. Once back at Maggie’s everyone sat down to a late breakfast, buffet-style, conversations subdued, cleanup quick and quiet.
Somehow, everyone ended up in the living room, settled around, talking low, kids playing board games on the floor, adults wishing they were kids who could lose themselves in board games. Betsy stood up a few minutes later, announcing she needed some more juice. Wandering into the kitchen, she suddenly screeched, “Sam!” and bolted out the back door before anyone could even think to move.
Mulder, however, made it upright first, “Betsy! Don’t go outside!”
Skinner was at him heels, Charlie stopping only to help Scully up. The first thing anyone saw as they moved through the kitchen was the back of Sam’s head, upright, facing away, sitting in a deck chair. So intent on him, no one noticed the others in the yard.
Scully, at the back of the pack, saw them through the curtains and hissed in a voice that stopped the remaining kids in their tracks, “stay inside!”
Adults, however, were already outside, having stumbled out the back slider door. Joanna tried to get to her son but Mulder was between them, holding his hand out to her and the rest of them, “don’t move.”
In unison, everyone turned to see what Scully already took in and Mulder was eyeing intently.
Spender was standing ten feet away under a tree, Krycek to his immediate right, Betsy held still with an arm around her throat and a gun to her head.
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises…Routines …Worry
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
The phone jolted them awake, Mulder automatically slapping at the nightstand, trying to stop the infernal noise from interrupting his warm cocoon of naked Scully suctioned to his chest, hand glued to her breast, feet tangled, knees bent, parts hard. The cold rush of air between them when they separated woke Scully to a half-stupor, “Mulder?”
“Yeah, hang on.” Finally finding the phone, he woke up quickly once he caught sight of the time.
3:45am.
“Fuck.”
Scully was already struggling to stand by the time he hung up, his statement to her brief but clear, “Sam’s gone.”
&&&&&&&&&
Against all better judgement, both of them, plus a still sleeping Will, arrived at Dave’s in record time, Mulder having blown through three red lights and went the wrong way on a one-way to cut another three minutes off the drive time. Ignoring Scully’s slow exit from the car, he grabbed Will’s carrier and met a stunned Dave on the front porch. Motioning him inside, Mulder handed him Will, then helped Scully up the steps.
Dave stood there, holding the carrier, having no idea how to function anymore, “He’s gone. He was there and then …”
Mulder hushed him gently, “wait until we’re inside. Go inside and sit down.”
Finally following orders, he moved, Scully behind, Mulder bringing up the rear, locking the door behind him, although, really, what was the point.
Joanna was staring into space, tears steadily running down her cheeks and off her chin. Scully, sitting down next to her with an involuntary groan, immediately leaned over, hugging her, “we’ll figure this out.”
No reaction but she hadn’t expected one, and keeping her hand rubbing Joanna’s back, Scully looked at Dave, trying to keep agent mode ahead of aunt mode and barely succeeding, “where are Hannah and Betsy?”
“They went home last night with Maggie and Skimmer. There’s no school tomorrow, today, but Sam wanted to come home to … to get going on our all-night video game marathon.” Scully had never seen her cousin so terrified before, face white, lips pale, eyes darting, fists clenching, knees bouncing, “we finished up around midnight and he went to bed and I went to bed, then I heard this incredibly loud noise and I was up before I knew I was up. There was light from around Sam’s bedroom door and I ran down there and opened it …”
His voice failed here, having cracked then sputtered out but Mulder and Scully already knew what was coming. Scully was halfway to a panicked flashback, her heartrate rising exponentially while Mulder wanted to fucking break the world in half to find Spender and Krychek, killing everyone in his path. Instead, he crouched beside Scully, choosing for a moment his wife over his nephew, “are you okay?”
She shook her head but answered quietly, deep breathing already kicking in, “no, but I’m fine.”
Mulder had already called Doggett and, as G.G. would say, bless his heart, he hadn’t asked questions, just jumped in the car, arriving on the stoop with his hand already up and ready to pound on the front door, calling through it as he did so, “it’s me. Let me in.”
Scully, on her exhale, “make sure.”
Mulder held a finger up to Dave, who hadn’t made a move yet to open the door, “quiet for a second.” Pulling his gun from holster, Mulder approached the door from the side, “what was your son’s favorite book?”
Doggett, on the front porch, wearing jeans, t-shirt, and flipflops, heavy boots in one hand, gun in the other, honestly wondered if they were all crazy, him included, “Everybody Poops.” Once inside, he took in the four of them, including Scully, “what the hell happened and why are you out of bed?”
“I wish I didn’t have a reason to be, believe me.”
Dave told the story in more detail, his voice shaking, terror keeping his eyes dry and his jaw clenched, “I heard the sound and saw the light, and when I opened his door, he was floating there, right in front of me, arms dangling, and the look on his …” he cracked again, the sobs hitching his chest, “the look on his face … he wanted me to help and I couldn’t. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t get to … I couldn’t save him.”
Mulder, his hand on Dave’s arm holding the man up so he didn’t hit the ground, asked when Dave didn’t continue, “then everything went black?”
Giving his cousin-in-law a sharp look, his head snapping up, “how did you know?”
“I watched it happen to my sister when I was 12.” He couldn’t allow the sudden, swift sinking feeling take over, instead, “we need to get Skinner here.”
Scully already had her phone out and holding it up to him, “here.”
Mulder shook his head, “you need to call everyone else and make sure they’re all accounted for.” Looking to Doggett, “I need you to start combing that room, the perimeter, the yard. I need your eyes on it before everyone else tramples through it.” Looking from the flipflops to the boots the man was now tying on, “what’s with the shoes?”
“You said get here. I wasn’t about to stop to put on my shoes.”
Mutual nod of understanding and thanks passing swiftly between them, Doggett headed back out, Mulder called Skinner, Scully tracked down the rest of the family, having to explain things several times to her sleep-laden then awake-terrified relatives, ending each conversation with, “we love you.”
The Gunmen got the next call and soon, MITBY was awake and grinding away, looking for any signs of the gangly, red-headed boy with freckles and that oddly unique gate that made Sam, Sam.
Scully, for her part, held Joanna’s hand and tried to keep her heartrate in the semi-safe ‘I’m supposed to be on bedrest’ range.
The house was soon crawling with police and agents, both on and off duty, Skinner having made one phone call to raise the posse.
It was just after 6am.
&&&&&&&&&
The problem with all of this was both Mulder and Scully firmly believed that they were all just spinning their wheels with fingerprinting, neighbor questioning, photographing. Catching her at the first quiet moment he could find, he sat down beside Scully, “how are you doing?”
“How do you think I’m doing?”
“Okay, sorry … how are the twins doing?”
She could feel her ankles swelling to epic proportions, her feet not having hung down below her waist for more than a half-hour in the last seven weeks, “I need to lay down soon. I don’t want to risk anything.”
“Do you want to stay here, go back to our house, or go to Maggie’s?”
Not answering yet, she looked around, “have you seen Joanna?”
“She went in the bedroom and shut the door maybe 20 minutes ago.”
“Then I think I’ll go there.” Stopping Mulder as he moved to stand and help her up, “hang on.” Once he retrained his gaze on her, “how are you doing?”
“I fucking want to find Spender and Krychek and hang them by their balls from a light pole and beat them senseless with a bat before I extract their brains through their nostrils. How do you think I’m doing?”
She deserved a little blowback, same as she’d given him a minute earlier. Hand now on his knee, “are you doing all right in terms of Samantha?”
About four seconds away from tearing apart the universe, he shrugged, “I haven’t stopped long enough to think about it.” Kissing her cheek, he stood, hand out to her, “come on.”
They found Joanna curled on the bed, staring into space. Sitting beside her, Scully ran a hand over Joanna’s shoulder, circling her back, “can I get you anything?” When she didn’t respond, “would you like to go to Maggie’s and see Hannah and Betsy?” Harrison had been hastily assigned, because Doggett had woken her up after his wake up, to Maggie’s so Hannah and Betsy wouldn’t have to witness the chaos but could still have someone to keep an eye on them and Maggie.
At her other’s children’s names, here face crumbled for a moment, then, in a quiet voice, “yes.”
Mulder drove, finding Harrison diligently questioning them when they came to the door, opening it only after Mulder answered her asked question with, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.’ Locking deadbolt behind them, all watching Joanna make a beeline for the girls, who were sitting quietly on the couch, not watching the cartoon on the television, before Harrison asked, “any news?”
Guiding her to the kitchen, where Maggie was making breakfast, Mulder answered honestly once they were out of earshot of Joanna, “no,” with a despondent look in Scully’s direction, “and I don’t think there will be, for awhile at least.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V… Birthday Surprises …Routines
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Mulder recovered, going on to close the cases Scully had solved, giving her all the credit, only taking the actual arrest and report typing kudos.
“You don’t get kudos for typing a report, Mulder, and seriously, you dictated it to me while feeding Will dinner.”
“I came up with the words.”
“Yeah, then I fixed the words so they weren’t one giant, run-on sentence without punctuation or verbs.”
Laughing, he leaned over so Scully could give her son snuggles before bed, “touché.” Once he returned from bedtime rituals, Mulder stood in the doorway, “do we have a final count for dinner tomorrow?”
Sunday dinner had been moved to the apartment, simply because Scully hadn’t seen everyone together in decades, or, by Gregorian calendar standards, four weeks, and she was craving people, conversations, noise, chaos, insanity, and the smells of a good, homecooked Sunday dinner, “I think everyone but Charlie and the guys.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. There’s some funky poaching happening this weekend.”
“Are you sure they’re not going to get arrested or killed or something?”
“They are poaching from the comfort of the SHIT cave living room couches. The only thing that may happen is the pizza will get cold and they’ll have to get up to reheat it.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Eventually, the apartment was full to overflowing, people eating here, there, everywhere, kids all over Scully’s bed, Will wandering back and forth, army-crawl fast with bouts of unsteady walking carrying him where he needed to be. There was so much conversation and chaos that it took Scully a minute to notice Sam standing quietly at the window, “Sam? Everything all right?”
Taking a moment to answer, “there was a man outside staring at the house but he’s gone now. I was just making sure he wasn’t coming back.”
Her attention zeroed in instantly, agent mode never far from all-consuming, “what man? Did you recognize him? How old was he? Do you know what he was wearing?”
Sam, honestly, was used to her question-firing and still looking out the window, answered quietly, “there was a man standing across the parking lot, behind a black car. I didn’t recognize him but he was old, older than Uncle Skimmer but about the same height. He had on a dark blue or black suit and his hair was grey.”
Her stomach icing over instantly, “was he smoking a cigarette?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see him with one.” Finally turning away from the window, he walked over to the bed, “he didn’t look friendly. He looked mean.”
Reaching a handout, she smiled at him, “can you do me a favor and go grab your uncle for me? Have him steal me one of those cream puffs your mom made.”
Sam nodded, then disappeared, Mulder appearing a few minutes later, cream puff in hand, “you okay?”
&&&&&&&
Everyone left early, Mulder quietly asking them to keep an eye on the kids and each other. Locking the door behind, he headed to the bedroom window to watch them all go, only turning to Scully once the cars had driven off. “Your family didn’t even blink when I told them to be careful. They nodded and stepped closer to their kids and will check their rearview mirrors as they’re driving home.” Pulling the heavy blinds shut against the darkened sky, “not one of them blinked. What the hell did we do to them?”
Holding her hand out to him, she wiggled her fingers until he took them, kneeling beside her, kissing each of her knuckles in turn, “Mulder …”
“Don’t say it … not yet.”
“What if it’s him?”
Finishing with her knuckles, he pressed his forehead to them, talking down her forearm to the bed, “if it is … I’m just … we’re …”
He didn’t finish the sentence but Scully did, not trying to be amusing but he had to smile when he heard her say, “well and truly fucked.”
Nodding against her skin, “well and truly fucked.”
“Why would he be watching the house?”
“If I knew that … God, he was supposed to be dead, wasn’t he?”
“Then maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was just a man looking at the buildings trying to find which one he was supposed to go to. I mean, we’ve stood there looking at a row of houses before, not knowing which one to go to at first.”
“Usually, we’re looking for someone who eats people or hacks them into little pieces.”
Stomach in a tight knot, she attempted to bring levity to their lead-weight discussion, “our lives are not a good example for comparison.”
He didn’t do anything but massage her wrist, still looking at the happy, polar bear printed flannel sheets he’d bought them for Christmas, “Spender isn’t exactly a good example of the common, everyday lost man, either.”
Suddenly she wanted him with her, beside her, surrounding her so thoroughly that the real world would disappear in the hot-blooded cocoon of one Fox Mulder, “is Will down for the night?”
“I think so. He never got a nap today so he should be good until the morning. Why?”
Moving her hand, she ran her fingers through his hair, “come to bed and make the world go away for awhile.”
Simply nodding, he stood, stripped, turned out the light and crawled in beside her. Tugging at her shirt sleeve, they did some maneuvering and soon, the two were spooned together, skin on skin, heat on heat, Mulder whispering once in her ear, “can you imagine playing ‘jetpack’ now?”
The levity was long gone, replaced by a dull, thudding fear in her marrow, “why do I feel like everything is rushing ahead? Out of control? Even if that wasn’t Spender, something’s going to happen, Mulder … soon … I can feel it.”
Pressing impossibly closer, he moved to kiss her behind the ear, his breath tickling tiny hairs usually reserved for making her spine shiver and her knees weak, “so can I. When Sam came to get me, he had a look in his eye that I didn’t recognize. He was scared but angry. Not confused. Angry.”
“Do you think it’s possible that he knows about the chip? About when you were gone last time?”
“I don’t know. I mean, we’ve only ever talked about it alone but who knows what Skinner may say or Maggie or even us. I mean, we talk when they aren’t in the room but they are in the house. Maybe he’s overheard something.” Feeling her fingers tracing along his forearm, which was nestled between her breasts, he stroked her throat absently, toying with the nubbin end of her collarbone, “how do I ask him without asking him? I’d like to know so we can make sure he’s on the same page.”
“The same page?” She nearly turned over to look at him like he was insane but he knew it was coming and tightened his grip on her, keeping her where she was. She felt the constricting arm and stopped trying to move, but did manage to turn her head slightly, talking to the ceiling, “he’s 12, Mulder. He isn’t even in the same volume that we are, much less chapter or page.”
He sighed into her cheek, his nose smushed against her temple, “we need to bring Dave in, then, or everybody, really.”
Scully put her head back down, attempting to wiggle a little closer to him, even though the laws of physics precluded that, barring sex or at least the precursors of sex. Once she realized this was as close as she was getting right now, she matched his sigh from moments earlier, “I can get Dave and Joanna over here tomorrow, ask if they can drop the kids at Mom’s house for awhile; just make sure Skinner’s there first.”
Had there been any possible chance in the world he could have run away at the moment, ensured his disappearance would protect the rest of the family, he would already be gone, leading the enemy from the gates, wild goose chase ensuing for decades to come.
But he didn’t do that anymore. He couldn’t do that anymore. He wouldn’t do that … ever.
He’d have to stay and fight.
“I wish I had never opened that file cabinet. I wish I had never listened to Diana when she told me I should dig further in. I wish you had, and this breaks my heart to even say out loud, I wish that you had just turned around when you saw me sitting there with those stupid slides, when you heard me say, ‘hey, let’s go to Oregon.’”
Now she did turn around, flopped and struggled but made it 180 degrees to face him, her face angry, her eyes flashing, “don’t you ever say that to me again. Whine, moan, complain, but do not ever tell me that you wish I hadn’t come down into that basement. You’d be dead without me, so get off your fucking martyr pedestal and kiss me, you jackass.” Doing as ordered, slightly afraid not to, she rubbed her nose against his once they’d come up for air, “tomorrow we will deal with this. Tonight, we sleep the sleep of two people who have nothing to worry about but the actual sleep, all right?”
“Are you actually going to sleep?”
“Probably not but I’m going to fucking fake it ‘til I make it.” She had fire in her veins at the moment and while she had absolutely no idea how to cool it down so she could get some sleep, she closed her eyes anyways, just to prove her point.
She felt his forehead settle against hers and his voice drift past her ears, “I never said I wished you hadn’t come down to the basement. I would never wish you hadn’t met me but the way I see it, even if you had turned around, since I’d already half fallen in love with you anyways, I’d have found a way to talk to you again because, I mean, I red M&M you to infinity and beyond. Can’t fight destiny, Scully.”
Her hand resting on the back of his neck by now, her fingernails scratched lightly, “we’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”
The tingle at the base of skull, which had nothing to do with the chip implanted there and all to do with her steady stroke, made him catch her lips again, “tomorrow.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths…Auntie V … Birthday Surprises
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
He hated to see her, confined to their bed, quietly internalizing aching hips and stiff back, swelling ankles and growing hemorrhoids, rarely complaining, silently groaning as her feet fell asleep yet again from the files piled on them. He tried to keep them on a schedule, which Scully truly appreciated: breakfast, get ready for work, chase Will around the house while Scully read files for an hour, tandem read books to the kid, mid-morning nap by child, vigorous discussion by adults, lunch, Mulder walk with Will while Scully napped, afternoon snack of something healthy, then house chores, laundry folding for Scully, vacuum and bathroom cleaning for Mulder, music on, Mulder dancing with Will in his arms, Scully planning dinner for Mulder to make, hour of science thinking, then either a good, vigorous word game or less vigorous puzzle.
The routine changed daily by increments but for the most part, it kept them sane, giving them structure and order to what could very well delve into argumentative chaos.
Three weeks passed before the phone rang, and Mulder returned to the bedroom a few minutes later, “I’ve gotta go. Your mom is on her way over.”
Sitting up a little straighter, “what happened?”
“Reyes went off on her own, somewhere in Utah and Doggett and Harrison are in St. Mary, Montana and Skinner is at that conference in Portland,” deep breath, he gave her a shrug, “so they called me.”
“Doesn’t Reyes have her own supervisor?”
“Yeah, but Reyes took the weekend off and didn’t tell her partner what she was doing, only that she was going to Utah but then he found a file on her desk involving Utah and he is down with a broken leg and their supervisor said, ‘she’s on vacation’.”
“And her broken leg partner doesn’t believe she’s actually on vacation or to be more specific, he believes that her ‘vacation’ involved this case and it probably actually did feel like a vacation to her?”
Mulder gave her that sheepish look she hadn’t seen in a good two years now, “yeah, I’m beginning to feel what it was like to have me as a partner.”
She couldn’t help but smile, “she hasn’t asked for help.”
“Did I ever ask for help?”
Scully shut her eyes, “God help us all. She’s you in a skirt and a southern accent.”
“So, you’re okay if I go find her?”
“Go do your knight in tarnished armor thing. I’ll be here when you get back, in this exact spot.”
With a chuckle, he kissed her twice then one more time, “I’ll call once I get to the airport. Your mom will be here in about a half hour. Will is fed and asleep. Do you need anything?”
“Time machine.”
“I’ll get right on that.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
Four fairly tense days later, Mulder was lying beside her in the bed, on his side, bandages and stitches holding together the skin along his spinal column. Pain killers were making things bearable but he was still awake, bearable not allowing him to sleep just yet. Reaching carefully over, he tweaked her nose, “shouldn’t you be asleep by now?”
“Waiting for you to fall asleep.”
“Then we’re going to be up for a very long time.”
Her hand found his cheek, “are you trying to kill me?”
“Hey, the oncoming lecture isn’t for me. It’s for Reyes. I just had to go rescue her.”
Scully’s forehead scrunched together, “there was really a worm they thought was Jesus sucking on your spinal cord?”
Mulder’s stomach turned over at the thought and he tinged green, “yes, now, can we just talk about anything else, please?”
“I think I’ve solved at least three of your cold cases.”
They were cold for a reason and to solve one, much less three, could very well earn her a statue in the main lobby of the Hoover Building, “which ones?”
She could tell when he was about to drift off: his eyes crossing, wobbling slightly, that little bit of drool at the corner of his mouth he kept forgetting to swallow, “you sure you want to start this now? You’re going to be asleep in about three seconds from the look of you.”
“I am wide awake.”
He was not.
The next day, both still in bed, Will safely ensconced at Sunday dinner with the rest of the family, minus Byers, who volunteered for MulderNScully-watching duty, the pair of them argued like the good ol’ days, point/counterpoint until Byers had to interject, asking if anyone needed some tea or a timeout in the corner.
Both chose tea in lieu of timeout and grinning over her mug at Mulder, who had to drink his tea from a straw, still forced to remain on his side while at least Scully could sit up, turn, choose from five possibly positions instead of Mulder’s singular one.
Luckily he only had a few more days of this, then he’d be back up and around, making fun of his wife as it should be.
He received the stink eye and a middle finger for that statement.
“Think of it, Scully. By the beginning of June, we’ll be taking three kids for walks, outside, in the actual sunshine. We’ll stand vertical whenever we want to. We will get to see colors other than what’re in this room.” He looked so wistful she smiled, “and there will be naked you and naked me and we’ll have all the nakedness together.”
Gesturing from head to toe, paying special attention to her now quite enormous belly, “the nakedness together is what gets us in these situations.”
“We’ll condom it up for a bit, then. Not a problem.” Crawling his hand in her general direction, he found the edge of her thermal shirt and slowly walked his fingers up and under, moving over hard belly and tightly smooth skin. Soon enough, he ran into her bra, fingers flicking her nipple through the thicker material, “I’ll give you five bucks to take this off.”
“We can’t and you know it.”
“I can’t look at your boobs? When did that happen?”
She shook her head and grinned at him, “you know what I mean and besides, when have you ever just looked at them? You’re a tactile guy, you like to do the things to them.”
“How many months until these kids get here?”
It was the end of March already, “eight weeks but don’t forget, you’ll be up and around a lot sooner than that.”
“I’m already up and around.” Giving her a cheeky grin, lots of teeth abounding, “maybe we could just take care of that?”
She thought he’d never ask, and grabbing a wad of Kleenex from the nightstand, “you’d better be quiet.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane…Tartan Tablecloths …Auntie V
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
He woke her with a Sno-Ball and a smile, “happy happy birthday!”
His voice was quiet but she was startled awake anyways, giving him a blurry, confused look before she knocked him to the ground, stepping on his hand in a slow attempt to find the empty trash can that now lived beside the bed. She found it in time to puke but not in time to tighten her bladder enough to keep from peeing in her pajamas.
Luckily it wasn’t much but mortified, she tried to scoot herself to the toilet while still throwing up in her bucket, all the while Mulder sat quietly on the floor, mortified as well that he’d done this to her while simultaneously fascinated that she could move and vomit at the same time, knees pressed together tightly.
Picking up the smashed Sno-Ball, he collected the crumbs and was eating the dessert when she returned to the bedroom, giving him a cranky look while she went to retrieve dry underwear and pajama bottoms. Once changed, she continued her cranky look as she took her clothes back to the bathroom and rinsed them out, dropping them in the tub to be washed in the washer in a little while.
All the while he watched, wondering when his words would sink in.
It took another two minutes, Scully standing in the doorway, attempting to comprehend English, before she realized what he said and her frown softened, her eyes darting around the room, “you ate my Sno-Ball, didn’t you?”
&&&&&&&&&
Sam shared Scully’s birthday, right down to the hour, just 22 years off. Scully and Sam always shared a lunch or dinner, then shopping for toys or video games or books, movie afterwards, ice cream chaser. It had been a tradition since year one and who was Mulder to interfere.
Besides, he had his own plans for the following weekend, planned down to the lunch and dinner reservations, baby-sitters, jacuzzi hotel rooms, and king-sized beds.
Alone for the day, Sam was the perfect gentleman, sharing his popcorn, holding open the door, offering to carry her coat while they were shopping and the bag once they were done. He even had the calm, rational demeanor to call an ambulance when she collapsed in the parking lot, landing in a frozen puddle, head cracking against the side of the car on her way down.
&&&&&&&&
“Mulder. The doctor said I’m fine.”
“You may think you’re fine but I vote for you keeping your ass in bed until the babies are born.”
Oh, good God, she could just imagine being trapped in an apartment with hovering Mulder for the next three months.
One of them would be dead.
She debated if she would be charged or if the ‘insanity by bedrest’ plea would hold up in court.
Probably not.
“How about we talk to the doctor again and let me look at the chart, okay? These kids are top priority but we’ve quarantined together how many times now? Do you remember what happens around week three?”
That was usually when she began discussing Einstein and trying to teach Mulder science.
He hated week three.
Week four was usually when they weren’t speaking and week five was endless card games and when Mulder stopped weighing himself given all the junk food he’d eaten.
Week six was usually their ‘get out of jail’ week but given the babies wouldn’t be due for six more weeks after that, “okay but I want in on this conversation.”
“Of course.”
An hour later, Scully looked at Mulder and Mulder looked at Scully as the doctor, a man they actually trusted, walked out of the room. “You’ll have to bring me our old case files, the cold ones. Those’ll keep my brain from going to mush.”
“I think I have some vacation time left but not enough to cover ten weeks. I’ll have to see what I can swing with Skinner.”
Curiously, “are you taking the time off with me?”
“Somebody’ll need to take care of Will.”
“I can get up for that.”
His voice held some kind of weird authority that normally would have had Scully handing in her letter of resignation, both for previous job and current husband, “you’re getting up to pee. That’s it.”
“Mulder.”
The authority was gone, replaced by the man who occasionally came to her, finger in the air, asking for her to remove a splinter, then squinched his eyes shut tight as she did so, “we need to do whatever possible to keep these kids in there as long as we can. You may go crazy, I may go crazy, everyone may go crazy, but if that’s what it takes, that’s what we do.” Meeting her forehead with his, “I can’t lose any of you.”
With a deep sigh of resignation and a half-hearted fist swing through the air, “This will be our best quarantine ever!”
“I think I heard sarcasm in there, young lady.”
“The people down the hall heard the sarcasm.”
Quick kiss later, “Mulder and Scully, together again.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official…Memory Lane …Tartan Tablecloths
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Scully took his hand on that quiet Thursday morning, still dark and cold outside, wind gusts rattling windows and creating irritating drafts across the bedroom floor, “Mulder?”
He was facing away, Scully playing jetpack in the deep gray of 6am morning, and pulling her hand to his mouth, he kissed it once before mumbling, “Scully.”
“Happy Anniversary.”
This called for turning around, which he did, careful not to knock into her belly, “roll over.”
Seriously.
“Easier said than done, mister, I have a belly the size of Montana to roll with me.”
His awakening brain assessed and agreed, choosing to climb over her, keeping them skillfully under the covers until he was on her other side, helping her scootch forward a little so he wasn’t hanging on for dear life to eight inches of prime mattress real estate. Once all settled and snuggled, “that was your gift. I hope you enjoyed it.”
She had and told him so.
With a chuffy chuckle into her neck, her hairs moved as he came in closer, mouth on skin, eyes closed once again, “you’re too easy.”
“We’re barreling toward a family of five and we technically had our first date … what … last week? I think we established how easy I am.”
Fingers working down until they found her now outie belly button, circling slowly, “pretty sure our first date was post-Christmas last year. Mexican festivities and book store discovery, if I’m not mistaken.”
Reaching her arm down to wedge her fingers between their pressed thighs, “I’d ask you to take the day off and spend it in bed but Will is set to wake up in about 20 minutes.”
“I can do a lot in 20 minutes.”
Too warm to feel up to moving much, she wiggled her hips back, then shut her eyes, “just give me a nice, long hug and I’ll give you a nice, non-expiring rain check for wild, 20-minute sex.”
Doing as asked, “I love you.”
“I love you back.”
&&&&&&&&&
Veronica made it down for her postponed Christmas visit and staying a week, with Mulder and Scully for three days, then with Joanna and her family for the other three. She and Joanna hit it off spectacularly and talked often, texted often, emailed often. Mulder got a big kick out of it and telling Joanna this, she just smiled, “I take all the family I can get, Mulder, regardless of size, shape, or blood-relation.”
“And we appreciate that immensely.”
Veronica, sitting in Maggie and Skinner’s living room after an unconventionally quiet Sunday dinner, sans the Gunmen, Doggett, Skinner, and Bill, took a quiet moment to stare at Will, playing with socks and rattles on her lap, then comment, “I can’t get over how much he looks like Christina and like you did, as a baby, Fox.”
“I knew he looked like me but I didn’t realize he looked like Mom, too.” Thinking for a moment, “I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a baby picture of her.”
“She used to have so much fun with you when you were this age. She would come over on Saturdays and we would take you to the park or to the river or, oh,” clapping her hands together, “once you were old enough to walk, you loved watching the ducks at the pond across the street from my house. You would run back and forth and quack, your little arms flapping.”
Mulder was entranced, not having heard much from his childhood, “that must have been entertaining.”
“Oh, it was. Your mother would run with you, quacking just as loudly and you’d be giggling and quacking and people would be stopping to watch and neither of you had a care in the world.” Clearly forgetting the roomful of family quietly surrounding her, she continued, her voice lower, lost in the past, “I’m not sure what happened after your sister was born. I don’t know if she became depressed, people didn’t know anything about post-partum depression like they do now, or something happened between her and Bill but she changed after that.“ Suddenly remembering her surroundings, she looked up, “so then, I helped you chase the ducks … that is, until Bill moved everyone away.” Giving Mulder a soft smile that fit her personality to a tee, “but now I have more family than I know what to do with, given that Jake has assigned me an official moniker and I have also been initiated into the clan via a green bean stuck to my cheek with turkey gravy.” Looking at Sam, “that was very nice of you not to throw it as I heard the initiation often begins with.”
Sam grinned at her, “you’re welcome, Auntie V.”
Mulder came back to his mother, however, in awe of what he’d just heard, “she ran and quacked and laughed?”
Veronica chuckled, “indeed she did. She was my best friend until … things happened. Even with our age difference, she was always there, listening, advising, swearing, cheating at cards, letting me win at tennis.” Twinkling her eyes at her nephew, “she was a very good egg, your mother was. I am very happy she decided to spend her last year with me. I got to see my sister again the way she used to be and let me tell you, she looked forward to your calls every week, made sure she was home by five every Saturday so she wouldn’t miss them.”
Tears were running down Mulder’s cheeks, ignored by everyone there, who chose to enjoy his radiant smile happening at the same time instead, “I wish I could remember her that way. I never saw that side of her or at least I don’t remember that side of her at all.”
“Next time I come down to visit, I will bring the photos and home videos,” reaching out to pat Mulder’s knee, “or you come see me, although I think it would be easier if I came here, given the amount of people you would have to bring with you … I believe last count was 21.”
Hannah, two over from Auntie V, wiggled in her seat, “super sleepover!”
Veronica leaned forward, blowing her a kiss, “I am so glad to be one of you.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
They stayed up talking, once they got back to the apartment, until after two, Mulder absorbing any and all information on his mother that Veronica offered. He learned of high school boyfriends, broken arms, plans to join the New York City ballet, and a oft-stolen car taken on a joy ride on a Sunday afternoon.
“My mother stole a car?”
“She said she had places to be.”
Mulder sat back against the couch, rubbing a hand over his face, talking more to his palm than to Veronica and Scully, “where did she go? And why didn’t I ever get to meet her?”
Scully ran her hand up and down his thigh, slow and steady, “you okay?”
“I wish I could have known her, that’s all.”
Standing, Veronica came over, leaning in for a hug, “I have plenty more stories where those came from and soon enough, you’ll know just as much about her as I do.”
Mulder motioned her to move back, then stood to give her a proper hug, “so, when will we see you next?”
“As soon as possible. Apprently Joanna and Dave would like to initiate me in a game called ‘Nertz.’ Apprently there is a heavy amount of swearing and what is said at the ‘Nertz’ table, stays at the ‘Nertz’ table.”
Scully grinned, “just remember to cut your finger nails before we play.” Holding up her right hand to show off a faint white scar, “that’s Sarah’s finger nail would right there.”
Moving on to hug Scully goodnight, after giving the scar proper appraisal, “remind me. I don’t want to main anyone in the process of winning.”
As Mulder and Scully watched her drive off the next morning, Mulder reached out for Scully’s hand, “I think, maybe, we could convince her to move down here. I saw the real estate section open on her bed when I went to the bathroom yesterday, so I mean, Mama Scully may need to buy another chair for the dinner table.”
“300 years from now, someone is going to dig up my mother’s house and find us all at that dinner table, having died from overeating, of course, and wonder just what kind of cult we were.”
“I prefer clan. Clan Scully.”
“You really, really want to buy a kilt, don’t you? Switch us from Irish to Scottish.”
“I really, really do.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)…Official …Memory Lane
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
After one last trek around the office, fingers running over photos tacked on the bulletin board and following up to the post-it note back on their poster. Somehow he knew and reaching up, he unpinned the thick paper, rolling it up and tucking it under his arm, “this should go up at home. How about right over the bed?”
“I was thinking maybe in Will’s room.”
“Done.”
Heading out, he switched off the lights and Scully looked up at him, surprised, “what are you doing? It’s only noon.”
“I’m hungry and don’t want to be here anymore today. How about we go dating at Mexican for lunch?”
Will kicked him absently in the thigh from his carrier, reminding them both he would also like to eat at some point. Smiling at his son, then looking at Scully, “he approves. What about you?”
“Only if we can visit Corky.”
“I don’t think we can eat Mexican anymore without visiting Corky.”
&&&&&&&&&&
They sat for two hours, Will babbling and playing, banging his tiny fists on the table and gumming little bits of vegetables and chicken. Once a semblance of quiet fell over the table, Will cleaned up and back in his carrier, sound asleep, Mulder reached across the table, playing with her pointer finger before flipping her whole hand over, tracing patterns in her palm before gripping her wrist lightly, Scully wrapping her own fingers around his, “how’re you doing?”
This time, her eyes stayed dry, “I’m okay. I do think I will probably like another job one day but at the moment, I am perfectly happy taking care of the kid/kids and the house and the shopping and the day-to-day nonsense of life.”
“Do you think you’d like to go be a doctor again or something totally different?”
Running a finger lightly up and down the light blue veins patterning his skin, pinky expertly finding the pulse point, “I have absolutely no idea … although every so often, don’t laugh, I picture myself running a donut and ice cream shop like we joke about or a bookstore like Corky.” Giving him a look that made him slide his feet across the floor and trap hers, hugging shoes with shoes, “I sometimes think that I have seen enough blood and bodies to last me at least two lifetimes and I …” dropping her eyes to the table, “I wish … I mean … I don’t want to sound like I regret things, because I don’t, but the thought of having to stand there and once again define someone’s death one organ at a time makes my stomach clench and my jaw tighten,” yawning to loosen the muscles already cramping in her chin, “and I … I will think about it again if and when I’m ready but right now, I want to be here, with you and with Will and with Thing 1 and Thing 2.” With a look of apologetic worry, “I’m sorry. This was supposed to be a date, not a requiem for my career.”
Squeezing her feet, “then how about the lamenting ends and the book buying begins? We really should have bought back the books from last time so he could sell them again.”
“Did you finish all of them?”
“About half. You?”
“I’ve got one left.”
Moving to stand and help her from the booth, he held out her coat, “so that’s why you quit. Even more time to read.”
“Shut up, Mulder.”
“Shutting up.”
&&&&&&&&&
Somehow, during their lost afternoon of bookstore prowling, Scully got to talking to Corky and after a few minutes, call across the store to Mulder, “Marco?”
From seven shelves back and one room over, where Mulder was burping Will and perusing the ‘Who do Voodoo? You do!’ section, “polo.”
“Come here a minute.”
Mulder looked at his son, “your mother beckons.” Will burped his response of ‘I heard’ and Mulder wiped a spit bubble turned drool line that came out with it, “and we never ignore your mother.” Leaving his pile of books behind, mental note of ‘voodoo’ firmly in place, he wandered to the front, “’sup, woman?”
The eyebrow she gave Mulder made Corky laugh, “that’s a fierce eyebrow, D. I like it.”
The ‘D’ made him smile, enjoying the fact that she garnered a nickname now, welcome in the store for life or longer, at least according to the sign that hung behind Corky’s head, which read, ‘Nicknames = lifetime 10% discount on Thursdays’. Handing off Will, “he ate and burped and found a book called ‘Astrophysics for Babies’. We have done well in the next room.”
“Dude, you found the ‘Science for Small Fry’ section, or, as I like to call it, ‘Bohr’s Babies’.”
He would live here if he could, but he’d keep that to himself for now. “Let me rephrase. What’s up, dear?”
Scully swatted him on the arm, “guess who was roommates with Corky here in college?”
Mulder couldn’t hazard a guess, not able to comprehend Corky existing anywhere on any plane of existence except in this store, “I have absolutely no idea.”
“Charlie.”
He would have choked had he been eating but even then, he accidently attempted to breathe in his spit and coughing until he turned blue, “our Charlie?”
Corky, having given him a bottle of ice tea from behind the counter to help with the dying thing, “yeah, man. He was great. I taught him how to grow weed on the windowsill and he drove me around on his mountain bike, even got me some of those little peg things so I could stand behind him holding his shoulders. Haven’t talked to him in a few years, though, my bad.”
“He would probably love to get together.”
Already hunting down a pencil, which was conveniently tucked behind his ear, precariously held there by cartilage bar and tight ponytail, “digits, please, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Giving him the number, Mulder returned to his browsing, mind half on the books in front of him and half on what in the world Corky could have studied in college, possiblegfr degrees he could have graduated with, and the minor fact that his brother-in-law knew how to grow pot.
The next Sunday dinner could very well wind up being epic.
Mulder finally had to haul her out the front door, having discovered her, two hours later, in the ‘Bows, Bros, and Hos’ section dedicated to all things Middle Ages, “it’s almost five. We should get out of here, get the kid home, let him run around a bit,” spinning around, “where is the kid?”
“Corky has him. They were playing with the cat a few minutes ago at the kids’ area back there.” Pointing to her left, Mulder could clearly see Corky and Will on a thick, plush rug, indeed playing with the Tortie that resided amongst the stacks, “her name is Sprocket and she is named after Spacely Space Sprockets from ‘The Jetsons’.”
“You would totally marry him, wouldn’t you?”
“Not marry but probably most definitely have a few fantasies,” giving him a completely different than the previous eyebrow raise, that raised a few things of his own, “you know how I feel about men in kilts.”
“That they should immediately take them off?”
“Indeed, Mr. Mulder.” Looking down, she shook her head, biting her lip, “you do have some very attractive knees. I think I’d like to see them under a nice, dark red tartan pattern … along with a few other things.”
He couldn’t resist kissing her, backing her against the shelf for a second before whispering, “maybe we should see if Maggie would like to do some impromptu babysitting tonight, maybe a sleepover with her youngest grandchild?”
Already well into the thought of him wearing the kilt and her crawling under it, she nodded, “why don’t I give her a call while you take all this up front?”
Mulder began collecting the stacks at her feet, adjusting himself discretely in the process, “ask politely but with just enough urgency behind it so she’ll feel guilty if she says ‘no’.”
Laughing, she pulled out her phone, “you are terrible.”
“But willing to do what it takes. You’ve got five minutes and if I catch you staring at Corky’s knees, I may not let you under my kilt later.”
&&&&&&&&&
Maggie did indeed take Will. Mulder did indeed take Scully’s Christmas red plaid tablecloth and wrap it around his waist a few times, showing off his knees and Scully did indeed see a few things Mulder had underneath.
That kitchen table really did know how to take a beating.
Every Christmas, from then on, whenever Scully pulled out that tablecloth, she first wrapped it around both her and Mulder, kissing him and telling him she loved him in a nice, Scottish brogue.
He always responded back.
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter…Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style) …Official
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Taking the bag for his hand, “trying to make me cry?”
“Naw, just thought you’d like to hang with me down here a little while longer.” Looking around, “Doggett and Harrison are in Phoenix and Reyes is back down in New Orleans so we have the whole place to ourselves.”
Slowly opening the bag, she randomly pulled out a green one, “I believe this was ‘green with envy to work with me.’”
He watched her pop it in her mouth and for the tenth time already that day, he thanked whomever was listening that he got to come home to her every night, “there was a time, in San Francisco, that you were standing next to me, talking to a plainclothes, Hawkins I think his name was, and you had your bag on your shoulder, and some asshole, you remember him,” he could see her nodding already, “some asshole ran by and stole your purse. Before either Hawkins or I had a chance to react, you were gone, hauling ass flat out, in those fat heels of yours, and you tackled him, literally tackled him, in the middle of that crowd of tourists, slid his face right across the pavement in front of the Giradelli chocolate place.” Grinning at the memory, “then you proceeded to sit on him, straddle his chest while reading his rights and holding his arms with your knees.”
“Ripped the knee of my pants that day.”
“Totally worth a new pair of pants. Anyway, Hawkins and I got there and we both stopped, and Hawkins, swear to God, leaned over to me and told me he was thoroughly jealous of me and if you ever decided to leave Washington, he wanted to hear about it so he could lobby for you to come work with him.”
Mulder then held another green M&M out to her.
Opening her mouth for it to be deposited, she chewed slowly, swallowing before, “well, he’s going to be waiting forever but it’s nice to know I have options.” Next, she dug up an orange, “orange you glad we’re partners.”
“Orange you?”
Her laugh was sudden and beautiful, filling the space and making his heart skip a beat, “yes, I am. Very glad.”
Taking her hand, he kissed her wedding ring, gold warm, diamond hard, “you might be leaving behind the Bureau but we’re partners for life now … you and me.” Running her knuckles along his lips, he stared down at her, “you and me … forever … understood?”
Her eyes wobbled for a second, one tear making a break for it, racing down her cheek, gravity working as it should, “understood.”
He ate this M&M himself.
Once they finally broke their gaze, and yes, it was gazing, Scully swiped her cheek dry, then held up a blue candy, “because you’re blue without me.”
“Are you kidding? Do you remember my calls to you when you were on vacation in Maine with the witchy, possessed doll and the lobster-eating sheriff?” Pointing up and behind him, toward the pencils still precariously hanging in the ceiling, “that time I perfected the pencil flip …”
“I like that you put them back up there after the fire …”
He continued without pause, “remember when I drove halfway across the country and kidnapped you for the road trip to end all road trips? What about when I chased the Jersey Devil in response to you having dinner with that numpty and leaving me to my own devices for the weekend?” On a roll now, “that was probably an unconscious jealousy response more than a blue one but I’m telling this story and I’m storing it under ‘blue’ … anyway … then there was that time,” he paused here, suddenly feeling his chest tighten, “then there were those times you were missing.” Stepping in closer, he moved his hands to her face, angling it to get the best view of her soul, “that three months were the worst I’ve ever spent. At least when you were in Antarctica, I had a purpose, a goal, a spot to go to … I knew where you were but when they took you,” he watched her eyes contract for a moment, watched her mind travel back to that train car for an instant before returning to the basement with him, “I was so lost, so … just … I never, ever, ever, want to be without you ever again.”
She ate the blue one quickly, trying not to choke as she swallowed, “can we … I don’t like to talk about ‘blue’.”
He dove his hand into the bag, quickly pulling out a yellow, “then we should discuss ‘yellow’ and all the yelling it represents.”
Glad to leave ‘blue’ behind, she had to smile at the memories of their knockdown, drag outs over the years, “I wonder how many times I’ve slammed that file cabinet in response to one of your asinine theories?”
“At least once a week, I’d say but in counterpoint, a lot of those theories ended up being partially correct.”
“You actually made me lose my voice once from yelling at you.”
He had no idea, “when was this?”
“Somewhere roundabout year three, maybe, we were standing outside some police station in North Dakota, I think, and it was raining and you just wouldn’t listen.” Shaking her head at him, she swallowed, remembered the thunder and the anger and the stubbornness that drove them both in the earlier years, “I don’t even remember exactly why we were arguing; I just remember finally having to scream at you to ‘shut up for a second’ and you couldn’t hear me because of the thunder and I had to yell it again and there was this terrible searing pain down my throat,” absently running a hand from jaw to collarbone, “and you just … God, I may not remember the subject but I have never wanted to throttle you more than on that day.”
“It was the simultaneous cases of sheep herds breaking free of their corrals and running off. I quoted the same phenomenon happening in England in 1888 and you told me to ‘kiss your ass’.”
Now she remembered, “it was lightning! For God sakes, it was lightning scaring them.”
“Calm down. I know that now and I agreed with you then once we checked weather reports and such.”
“I couldn’t talk for a damn week.”
“You said it was just a cold.”
Eating a second yellow M&M just because she could, “I didn’t want to make you feel bad.”
He hugged her then, kissing both her forehead and her mouth before pulling back again, “I’m glad we don’t fight like that anymore.”
“We do … it’s just about more … domestic … things.”
“You did scream at me pretty good a few weeks back about the toilet seat.”
“Cliché as it might be, Mulder, when you leave it up and I sit down on it at 4:17 in the morning, then fall in the cold water, you’re going to get woken up and screamed at.”
Another kiss, “I’m glad you still like me.”
“I’m glad you still like me, too.” Turning the bag over and over, she looked at him with a pout, “there’s no purple in here.”
“I know. Those fuckers still haven’t eliminated the shit brown M&M and replaced it with the purple. I’ve really got to write them an angry letter or something.”
“We’ll write it tonight.”
This time, his arms went around her waist, leaning a little more than usual to compensate for the roundness that was child #2 and #3, “I don’t need candy to remind me just how perfect you are.”
“I am far from perfect.” Kissing him, holding the connection even after her mouth stilled, she broke contact only because she knew Mulder’s back must be hurting, “and so are you but we are perfect together.”
“Yin and yang … salt and pepper … rice and beans … mac and cheese … blue punch and cards … it’s MulderNScully, baby, all the way.”
“I was waiting for you to say ‘liver and onions.’
Shuddering slightly, “we don’t talk about liver, remember?”
With a laugh, she gave him another quick kiss before finally settling back, scooting up to sit on the desk, her feet beginning to swell in the dress shoes she hadn’t worn in months, “so,” surreptitiously but not at all, finding and retrieving a red M&M, she rolled it between her fingers as she held it up, halfway between him and her, “we only have red left.”
His eyes filled for a second but he blinked the tears back, sniffing his instantly runny nose, “I have loved every second of working with you but that ain’t nothin’ compared to how much I have loved every other second with you. I’m wasn’t kidding when I told you I fell in love with you when I woke up in Alaska but I think I was already gone by the time we left Oregon on our first case.” Moving between her knees, he reached his hand forward to toy with her necklace, “I’ve loved you for a very long time, Agent Scully, and while I can try, there will never be enough red M&Ms in the universe to adequately represent even a fraction of my feelings for you.”
Well, fucking hell, she was crying now.
Leaning forward as much as she could, he leaned, meeting her forehead in their unmistakable gesture of mutual adoration, “take me home, Mulder.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung…Mama Walter …Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Skimmer-style)
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
He found her sitting at the kitchen table one cold January morning, afghan around her shoulders, super thick, warm fuzzy socks in place, staring at her badge wallet. Approaching, she didn’t look up and he leaned into her back, looking over her shoulder, “whatcha doin’?”
“Look at the date.”
There was a reissue/re-up date for a new photo and the date told him that her credentials would be expiring in three days, “you better come in and get your new picture.”
Leaning her head against his, she knocked the wallet against the table twice before holding it still, her knuckles whitening in spots, “I think … that … we will have three children soon and I … need … to officially quit … the F … B … I.”
Had she not been supporting him, he would have collapsed to the ground in a disbelieving heap, “what?”
Gently shrugging his off her shoulder, she turned, eyes pink from what he realized must have been crying, “I think it’s time … to quit … officially.”
Without breaking his gaze, he shifted, turned, pulled a chair over and settled in front of her, hands on her thighs, “if it’s making you cry, don’t do it. You can stay around as long as you like.”
Her head tilted, lips pressed together, chin wrinkled, eyebrows both up, “I’m not crying because I don’t want to go. I’m actually crying because I don’t think I mind quitting.”
Not expecting that quite this early in the morning, he tilted back at her, “you’re finished with it?”
Tears ran again as she nodded, “I think so. The thought of leaving Will behind and soon, two more babies, even for the day, to go do an autopsy for you, or to paper chase lab results, is so far out of my realm of understanding right now that … I … I just …” resting her hands over his, “I don’t want to do it anymore.”
His heart ached at the thought of her never being beside him again in partner capacity but sliding his hand out from under hers, he spun his wedding ring around his finger, his thumb shifting it back and forth. Looking from her, to it, then back again, he leaned forward to kiss the tip of her nose, “we’ll probably have to go gun shopping for you then. Get you a concealed license, steal some Kevlar and staples.”
“Staples?”
“You never know when we’ll need staples.” Suddenly she was hugging him, his neck bent at an uncomfortable angle he chose to ignore, his arms going around her, “how long have you been awake?”
One large sniff in his ear later, “since three. I threw up and came out here and for some reason, it just popped in my head and I’ve been staring at it since then.”
Finally pulling back, his back cracking, he returned his hands to her legs, “aren’t we supposed to, like, talk about everything and wake each other up when crazy stuff like vomiting and calendendrical revelations occur?”
“Calendrical?”
“It’s 5:15 in the morning, I can make up a word.”
Scully handed him her ID, “I guess you should take this in, give it to Skinner.”
“Naw, we’ll keep it, put it in with Will’s first pair of shoes and that weird stump of umbilical cord you insisted on saving.”
Smacking him on the chest, “I did not save his umbilical cord.”
“You wanted to.”
“I really didn’t.” Resting her hand on his cheek, “you hungry?”
“You’re thinking pancakes, aren’t you?”
“With extra syrup.”
Standing, “do we have bacon?”
Already heading to the freezer, “buy one, get one free last week. I stocked up.”
&&&&&&&&&&
The pancakes were light and fluffy, the syrup sticky, the butter smooth, the bacon carbonized, the son asleep longer than usual, the make-out session against the refrigerator door quick and perfect. They also got ready for work together, for what they could only assume would be the last time.
Scully decided to bring Will to the Hoover Building and turn her items in to Skinner officially, instead of over the dinner table at her mother’s house, which, in the grand scheme, is probably a much more appropriate way to leave a job.
It was a slow process, each taking their time with pulling on shirts and brushing teeth, sliding on shoes and filling pockets, watching each other throughout. Mulder felt the beginnings of a minor depression setting in as he held her coat out to her but it disappeared the instant she tried to close her coat over her rapidly expanding belly. She looked up at him as he looked down at her and suddenly, both were grinning, “you are completely adorable.”
“Even with a seven-foot circumference?”
“As long as I can hug you, I don’t care how big you get.”
“Pretty soon, you won’t be able to get anywhere near me. How are you going to hug me then?”
Waggling a lewd eyebrow at her, “I’ll just come in from behind. Cop a cheap feel in the process. It’ll be great.”
&&&&&&&&&
Half the people in the Hoover building nodded and said ‘hello’ to her and Mulder, stopping the trio to catch a view of Will and comment on his shock of red hair and his startlingly bright deep blue eyes. Mulder deferred all compliments to Scully, letting her bask in the attention that she never once received while she worked there, basement dweller shunned seven years running.
Heading to Skinner’s office, they talked to his secretary until Skinner got off the phone and immediately came out to the outer office, unstrapping Will, settling him on his shoulder in his usual spot. “What do we owe this visit to?”
Scully motioned toward Skinner’s office, “can we talk to you?”
“Of course. Go on in.” Grandchild snuggled against him, he followed, closing the door with his foot, “everything all right?”
“I should have called but once I decided, I decided.” Pulling her badge, wallet, and gun from her pockets and holster, she set them on her former boss’s desk, “I’m quitting, formally, effective today.”
Skinner had been rendered speechless on several occasions by the Scully-Mulder dynamic but this one was the first to make his heart drop a little. He’d known it would happen eventually but he hadn’t been expecting it to be before the twins were born, at the very earliest.
Scully looked at him, quiet for a few seconds before, “you okay, sir?”
This brought him back, “sir?”
She shrugged, mouth turned up on the left side, right side still serious, “old habits.”
Gently rocking Will, he first gave the boy a kiss to the forehead, then cuddled him unabashedly under his chin, “what made you do it today?”
“It was expiring and I just realized … it was time.”
“No consulting? No teaching? No curbside favors?”
“Not anymore.”
For the first time, in possibly forever, he looked sad, “I was expecting this but I will say, a small part of me is going to miss the daily game of ‘what the hell did Mulder and Scully do now?’”
“We can play it at dinner on Sundays. I’ll make sure Mulder is extra argumentative next week.”
Reaching out, he one-arm hugged her, surprising them both, “even more to look forward to on Sundays.”
She hugged him back, “I will need you to get me a concealed license, though, so our work isn’t quite done.”
“Don’t forget the paperwork we have to do. You don’t get to quit until you sign the papers.”
So began an emotional rollercoaster, two hours in the making, human resources, life-sucking ordeal that ended, finally, with Scully in the basement, standing in the doorway, voyeuristically watching Mulder hunched over a file cabinet, shirt slightly untucked, wearing the belt she’d bought him and running their son’s stroller back and forth an inch at a time with his foot.
Not able to help herself, she pushed the door open a little more, knocking lightly as she did so, “hello?”
It was on the tip of his tongue, their opening line, their introduction to each other and to the world as partners in his battle with the universe. Instead, he turned, studied her a moment, then let his face crease up in a smile.
He was wearing his glasses.
God, she loved the glasses.
“I desperately want to say something about the FBI’s most unwanted but I’ve come to realize that I am wanted by more people than I ever thought possible so instead, ‘hey, how’re you doing?’”
She kept her station in the doorframe, her eyes dry but pained, bright with unshed tears, “I’ve been better but definitely been worse.”
Moving to his desk, he removed something from the bottom drawer, then walked back to her, “got something for you.”
“If it’s all my personal casefiles, you’ll do better to burn ‘em than give ‘em to me.”
Somehow, he understood, having gone through a version of this when he opened the office up to Doggett and Harrison. From behind his back, he gave her a sandwich bag full of peanut M&Ms, majority red but all colors represented, “thought maybe you’d like to take a trip down memory lane.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations…Stockings were Hung …Mama Walter
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
A heavy snowstorm blocked Veronica’s way into town but she called and told Mulder she would be down when the snow cleared. “I’m sorry you’ll be alone for Christmas.”
He could hear the gentle smile in her voice, “Fox, I’m not alone up here. I have neighbors and friends and my church. I’ll be just fine so don’t worry about me, all right?”
“Merry Christmas, Aunt Veronica.”
“Merry Christmas, Fox.”
Hanging up, he looked at Scully, “I have this weird urge to fight the snowstorm and go get her.”
Handing him his badge and gun, “go to work. Drive safe. We will see her soon.”
“Two days to Christmas.”
&&&&&&&&&&
He very nearly didn’t make it home for Christmas, the case Doggett and Harrison were on required another set of investigative hands, flying out three hours after his conversation with Veronica and landing back home after begging his way onto the only plane left heading to DC, 2:42am Christmas morning landing time making his brain hurt. Doggett waved a goodbye at baggage claim, informing him he was going home for a nap and would be back at Maggie’s, as instructed, at 11am, for post-church festivities. Harrison offered him a hug and yet another apology for turning down Maggie’s Christmas invite, “tell everyone ‘Merry Christmas’ for me.”
“Merry Christmas!”
Mulder, without luggage struggle, shuffled as fast as possible to his car, pants legs soaked from snow and slush by the time he got there. He expected her and Will to be sound asleep when he walked in, locking and double checking behind him but instead, he found her half-laying on the couch, feet on the coffee table, tree lighting her face in the dark of the room. Hearing the snuffling sleep of his son through the baby monitor, he set down his carry-on, whispering, “everything okay?”
Turning her head to see him over the back of the couch, she smiled, “everything’s good.”
Shoes off, he sat down next to her, feet beside hers, hand on her thigh, “were you waiting for me?”
“Maybe.”
With a grin, he snuggled a little closer, “do you remember our first Christmas together?”
“As partners in general or the one where my mother demanded you come to the house for Christmas dinner under penalty of death as well as threats of being cut-off from Thursday night card parties?”
“The second one.”
Turning, dropping a kiss to his shoulder, “that was a good Christmas. Toby threw up on you, you had pudding in your hair from your formal holiday dinner induction, you were wearing black jeans and that dark red and gray sweater which, thinking about it and willing to admit out loud now that we’re an old, married couple, you looked exceptionally handsome in.”
“Handsome?”
“Hot and jumpable, okay, geez.”
By now his fingers were laced with hers, “no wonder you were staring at me all night.”
Who was she to deny him a truth and letting out a slow sigh, “yeah … that was a really nice sweater.”
Chuckling, he squeezed her hand, “come on. I’m exhausted and we need to be at your mom’s in something like four hours. Come to bed so you can dream about me in that sweater.”
“Whatever happened to it?”
“I lit the sleeve on fire leaning over the stove a few months later.”
“Ahh, yes. The ‘Flaming Mudler’ incident.” Standing with a little push from his willing hands, “I miss that sweater.”
“Merry Christmas, Agent Scully.”
“Merry Christmas, Agent Mudler.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
He was buried under wrapping paper, drunk on alcohol-less eggnog and the happy feelings created by spending the day with his people.
And coming down from the sugar high of two bags of peanut M&Ms, sharing size.
Betsy and Toby were under there with him, the paper rustling every so often as Frohike piled more on.
Scully was feeding Will and talking to Grandma Gertie and Maggie while others were playing with toys and planning a snowman making expedition to the front lawn. Mulder kept an ear on the snowman troupe, not wanting to miss the chance to throw an accidently errant snowball at his brother-in-law.
Either brother-in-law would do …
“Uncle Mudler?”
Betsy’s voice was quiet in his ear and Mulder whispered back, “what?”
“If me and Toby make our own snowman, will you help us?”
“Of course.”
Frohike piled some more on, and Toby’s missing tooth lisp from his left made him smile, “Uncle Mudler?”
“Yes, Toby?”
“If Uncle Dave throws me in the snow, will you be angry?”
“I will be so angry that I will throw him in the snow next to you.”
“Thanks, Uncle Mudler.”
He loved his life pretty much all the time now, “should we stand up in a second and scare everyone? I think they forgot we were under here.”
Both kids wiggled, immediately excited to be scaring the adults and their giggles gave them away but being five and six, they had no idea everyone could hear them, “yes, yes!”
“Sshhh. We have to be quiet.” He found both their sides and nudged them, counting quietly, “on three. One … two … three … GO!”
All three popped up, arms flailing, paper flying, adults acting appropriately surprised, Will clapping his hands and Skinner, in the role of Uncle Skimmer, yelled, jumping in the air then gracefully falling to his butt on the floor, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!”
Betsy and Toby thought he was the greatest thing ever invented from that day forward and spent the next thirty years, minimum, randomly yelling ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph’ and dropping to the ground whenever he was near.
G.G., once the room had quieted and most of the people had clomped to the front lawn and neighboring lawns to make snowmen, turned to those who were left, “thank you.”
Maggie, along with Joanna and Scully, looked curiously at her, Scully speaking up, “for what?”
“For having me for Christmas.” Her round cheeks rose in a smile, squishing her eyes to slits, “my family growing up was quite large, with seven of us plus my parents and now, it’s just my brother Harry and my Walter. This week has taken me back 60 years and I just …” looking at each of them in turn, “I had no idea how much I missed this.”
“You enjoy this insanity?”
Looking at her daughter-in-law, “every minute of it.”
Maggie hugged her arm, “in the words of Fox, ‘you are a keeper’.”
Scully had to constantly remind herself that her mother was a daughter-in-law and she, with her step-grandmother sitting across from her, was a granddaughter once again.
Good lord, her family tree was a joyful mess.
Joanna gave Gertie a smile, “we are very, very glad you decided to come for Christmas and conveniently,” glancing out the front window to make sure they were all still outside, “since Walter isn’t here, I think we need to hear some Walter stories to hold over his head.”
Gertie re-settled in her chair, “did you have any idea that Walter once wanted to be a professional baseball player?”
&&&&&&&&&&&
Dinner was wild, Gertie appropriately spared initiation. Maggie gave her warning, Charlie ignored it, this time claiming ‘lob’ as the word left out of his mother’s speech.
Straight-faced, finger-pointed, eyes squinted, in her younger son’s direction, quick glancing at Byers, who was wiping butter from his forehead and trying not to laugh, “if you have given John some kind of buttery concussion, you will be doing dishes every dinner for the next six months.”
Mulder, taking his life in his hands, ‘lobbed’ his own roll, bouncing it off the top of Charlie’s head, sending it ricocheting sideways, directly into Gertie’s lap.
Maggie turned around slowly, the fire in her eyes now aimed at the line of them behind her, Mulder, Sam, Frohike, Doggett, Hannah, Sarah, and Graham, “who did that?”
Because they were them, in perfect unison, six fingers pointed directly at Mulder.
He whispered “rats” out of the corner of his mouth at his accusers, then shrugged. The jig up, he gave Maggie a crooked grin, the one that got Scully to go into haunted houses and follow him to the ends of the Earth without question, “pretty sure that was a ‘hurl’.
Gertie cracked first, with Maggie close behind, the rest following suit on their coattails. Charlie looked at Mulder, “that was a pretty good shot,” then turned to Byers, “sorry but it had to be done.”
“That beats my initiation of nacho cheese in the ear. I approve.”
Langley leaned over and picked a breadcrumb from Byers’ hair, “it’s totally easier to clean, too.”
Dessert followed, Maggie’s finger re-appearing, with a blanket, “if anything on this table flies anywhere but into your own mouth, you will be banned from holidays until the end of time.”
Skinner tossed a marshmallow in the air and caught it in his mouth, looking Maggie dead in the face as he chewed, “I love you.”
Toby smacked his forehead, exclaiming in his adorably toothless way, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!”
&&&&&&&&&&&&
As usual, it took forever to clear out the house, goodbyes followed by returns to collect a missing glove or a forgotten scarf. Mulder and Scully maneuvered a floppy, sleeping Will into his car seat, then headed out, leaving Sarah and Charlie attempting to get an asleep Toby into his coat, the poor boy mumbling and flapping his arms like a drunken duck.
Home by 11, they were in bed by midnight, Scully exhausted beyond understanding while Mulder was awake behind her, working his lips slowly across the back of her neck, “merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”
“Are you even awake?”
Her voice sounded remarkably like Toby’s earlier, “maybe … possibly … I don’t know.”
“You are one of my four greatest Christmas presents.”
Her hand automatically rubbed her belly, “you are one of my four.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral…Midnight Libations …Stockings were Hung
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Mama Walter arrived a few days before Veronica and was standing at the stove when Mulder and Scully walked in for Thursday night cards and Will bragging. The carrier swung from Mulder’s arm while Scully set the diaper bag by the couch. It was awfully quiet for having at minimum five people already in the house. Heading suspiciously into the kitchen, ears tuned, eyes alert, they stopped dead when they saw Walter, Maggie, Ellie, and Ruth watching wide-eyed as someone, presumably Mama Walter, moved a baking dish carefully from the oven to the counter.
With a whisper, Mama Walter greeted the new arrivals, “I will give you a proper ‘hello’ in a moment, right after this souffle settles down and we can talk in a right proper voice.”
Whatever type of souffle that was, Mulder’s nose told him he loved the baker of it already. Even Will knew to be quiet, sucking on his fingers in rapt anticipation of meeting this short, round woman who might prove to be a very good cuddler. Once the souffle was down, the woman took off her oven mitts and held out her hand to Scully, “you must be Dana. Walter has been talking about you,” then nodding toward Mulder, “and you for years. Glad you finally got your ducks in a row.”
Scully gave her the biggest smile she could produce without cracking her face in half, “nice to meet you … Walter’s mom?”
The woman turned to lightly smack her son on the chest, “have you not told them my name? I ought to take you over my knee, young man.”
Skinner, towering Marine with the ‘don’t mess with me’ countenance, turned back into a seven-year old boy for half-a-second, then rebounded with a smile, looking from his mother to the pair of them, “excuse me. Mom, meet Dana and Fox. Dana and Fox, may I introduce my mother, Gertrude.”
She hugged them both immediately, “please, call me Gertie. I haven’t been called Gertrude since I was 13 years old.” Finishing that introduction, Gertie turned to Will, “and you, my dear boy, must be the great-grandson.”
Will blew raspberries at her in approval.
She blew them back in response, then tickled the bottoms of his stocking feet, “we will have to figure out just what you’ll call me.”
Mulder and Scully, being Mulder and Scully, looked at each other, and in unison, because they were Mulder and Scully, “Grandma Gertie,” then, “G.G.,” followed by both nodding, “G.G.”
Grandma Gertie watched them in amusement, then looked at Skinner once again, “they really are exactly how you described.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
Grandma Gertie fit in well, holding her own in the baking, travel, reading, yoga discussions but when it came to family, she offered up, “Walter and his first wife didn’t any children and my second son Michael didn’t live long enough to get married so when I first heard about Maggie and the brood,” smiling at Maggie, “I couldn’t wait to meet y’all.”
Neither Mulder nor Scully had ever heard of Michael but knowing now was not the time to ask, they recovered quickly, Mulder taking over, “I don’t know about Walter but I will say from personal experience, that the family, while huge and loud, is wonderful and they’ll like you, trust me.”
“That’s good to hear, Fox, thank you.”
Her slight southern accent amused them all and as the evening progressed, and as the stories emerged, the accent became stronger. There wasn’t any drinking that night, given their guest and the fact that, as Skinner had shared quietly sometime in the past, “my father had a drinking problem. Mom stayed with him until he died, but she does not like to be around people when they drink.”
They still had a whopping good time, Gertie losing every hand and loving it, laughing in glee until her face turned red, and spooning up souffle every time Mulder held out his empty plate. Soon, Will began fussing, tired of being passed around the kitchen table, ready for bed. Gertie stood, extending hesitant arms out to the baby, “may I? I’ll take him in the other room and get him to sleep. Let y’all continue playing.”
Scully agreed before anyone could offer an alternative, “of course. He would love that. His stroller is open and flat so he can just go in there whenever you feel like putting him down.”
Gertie gave her a soft smile, “I don’t think I’ll ever feel like putting him down but we’ll see where the night takes us.”
Gertie indeed did not put him down, still quietly holding him an hour later when the pair decided it was time to head home with the little for a good night’s sleep. Finding Gertie in the squashy chair, Will snoring in his place in her arms, Mulder whispered to Gertie, “how is your arm not asleep?”
“Oh, it is, dear, been dead for most half an hour now.” Running a light finger over Will’s nose and cheeks, “but he’s perfect so I’ll forgive him the pins and needles that’ll be happening in a few minutes.”
Mulder hated to take him from her but take him he did, “we may have to hire you permanently once the twins get here.”
“I heard about the pair of them. Congratulations.”
Scully tucked Will’s empty bottle and clothes back in the diaper bag, “thank you. I think the family is starting to take bets on just how big I’m going to get.”
Mulder touched her arm, “I’ve got $20 riding on you being roughly the size of a small, one room Ikea apartment. Don’t disappoint me.”
Gertie gave Scully an appraising look, staring first at belly, then at face, “I would like to wager $10 on one twin being 5lb. 8 oz. and the second being 5 lb. 12 oz.”
With an admiring look, “that’s very specific, G.G.”
She looked at Mulder, having heard enough about their work history to know he’d appreciate her next statement, “I have a gift.”
She had him hook, line, and sinker, but he also knew Scully was exhausted and wanted to get home, so he left it with, “you and I … we should talk,” before scooting his wife and son out the door.
&&&&&&&&&&
“She’s got a gift, Scully.”
Scully, being halfway to dreamland and not wanting to have this conversation which could very well end up with Mulder going over to the house and waking the older woman up to demand details about the aforementioned ‘gift’, “go to sleep.”
He was curled behind her, his hand on her warm, rounding stomach, voice soft in her ear, “do you think she can see the future? Is it just random things? Is it specifically only about babies? How can you not be intrigued by this?”
Praying, pleading, with the God and the gods, for him to shut it, “I need you to go to sleep. Will is going to be awake in six hours and I’d like to have had more than an hour’s worth of sleep by then.”
Mulder never heard her, “in the old days, I would have shown up at your door and you would have wanted me so badly you would have grabbed your little blue suitcase and hopped in the car.”
Okay, “wanted you so badly?” Now she turned her head, running into his nose, wide awake and paying rapt attention in anticipation of his future response, “that’s why I went to the ends of the Earth, as well as Kroner, Kansas, with you? Because I think it was my job and I do my job and I do my job fucking well, thank you very much.”
He nibbled her cheek, “but you admit, you did want me, just a little bit.”
Her smile creased her cheek, “even if she were to answer the door and tell you hours upon hours of tales of her ‘gift’, Skinner would hear you, and kill you.”
“Maybe she already knows I’m coming over.”
“You’re not going over.”
“What if she’s already making tea for me and another souffle?”
“She is asleep, like we should be.”
Mulder grumbled into her cheek, “if she calls me tomorrow and asks why I didn’t come over, you owe me big time.”
Turning a little more, she kissed the corner of his mouth, “I’ll take my chances.”
The fourth series reads as follows: Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving…The Funeral …Midnight Libations
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
Mulder made it back from his second trip down to New Orleans, this one sans Scully but with Doggett, ‘no sex, no drinking, two separate rooms.’
‘Sounds like the first six years of our partnership.’
‘Yeah, we were stupid.’
&&&&&&&&
Mulder kicked his shoes in the corner, picking up Will from his highchair, ignoring mashed carrots and peas smeared across the little boy’s face and neck. Squeezing his son and whispering a ‘hi there’, he turned to Scully, “she’s looking for a partner but I think it’s going to be a hard sell to most. You getting assigned to me, while the original intent wasn’t convenient, the end results managed to be phenomenal. I wonder if any of those assholes had an inkling of what we’d turn out to be.”
Scully, wearing some of her son’s dinner, popped her dirty shirt off over her head and slid on the spare she’d brought to the kitchen knowing what dinner with a 7-month-old would be, “there were several techs that I’ve worked with over the years that, with probably a lot of grooming, could take up the mantle. Years of working in autopsy bays at 2am with overtired, talkative 20-somethings can be helpful sometimes.” Smiling at Mulder watching her intently, “I can probably start cold-calling around, see what I can find.”
“Leaving the Bureau is never quite leaving the Bureau, is it?”
“Hey, I haven’t officially left. I just stopped going and pulling a paycheck.”
“Some people consider that quitting.”
“Skinner hasn’t said anything so why would I? Keeping my credentials is handy, if for nothing else, I can get into the building faster because I don’t have to go through the front door.” Tossing Will’s pajamas toward Mulder, “Can you change him, please, while I dish up some dinner for us?”
“Indeed.” Walking Will to the living room, wetting down some paper towel for face and hand cleaning as he passed by, “I guess it can’t hurt if you want to poke around a bit, ask some leading questions. I’ll email Reyes to let her know.”
“I can do it. We’ve been going back and forth about several past case theories anyway.”
Mulder looked up at her, squinting, “are you cheating on me? This feels like cheating.”
“Shut up, Mulder.”
Will’s wadded up dirty socks smacked her squarely in the back as she stood at the stove.
It took another few minutes before Mulder returned, both himself and Will in pajamas. Scully turned and couldn’t help laughing, “are we calling it an early night, Agent Mulder?”
“I am tired of working and tired of flying and tired of missing you so I vote an evening on the couch with the kid until bedtime, then more couch time with popcorn and scary movies.”
“Christmas movies.”
“Scary Christmas movies?”
“Sold to the tall gentleman in the red flannel pants.”
After Will fell asleep and was snuggled away in his crib, Scully stopped Mulder from hitting play on ‘Die Hard,’ not scary but at least bloody and definitely Christmas-y, “Joanna talked Veronica into coming down for Christmas. Veronica called my mom this afternoon to find out what would be a good hotel that was close to Maggie’s. Mom, in turn, offered her a room at her house.”
“I like how we have been completely removed from the equation.”
“The perils of our people. Anyway, it seems that Skinner’s mom is also coming for Christmas and she will be staying in the downstairs spare room because her knee gives her trouble and she doesn’t want to fall down the steps at 3am.”
“Thoughtful of her.”
“She also likes to be up at 5am to do her yoga and the living room is easier for that and quieter.”
Mulder was turning purple by now, trying not to laugh, “oh, my God, Mama Walter does yoga? Veronica is sleeping in a spare room? This may be the ultimate Scully Christmas.”
Taking up the moniker because it was handy, “Mama Walter is also insisting on baking all the desserts ; both in my mother’s kitchen or possibly Janet’s next door if she runs out of room.”
“Good Lord.” Deep breath in, “and try to remind your mom that Veronica is a vegetarian.”
“I highly doubt that’s going to stick by the time the holidays are done.”
Mulder sat back, counting on his fingers, “Maggie, Walter, Mama Walter … you, me, kid, Veronica … Bill, Tara, Matt, Graham … Dave, Joanna, Sam, Betsy, Hannah … Charlie, Sarah, Jake, Toby … Langley, Byers, Frohike … pretty sure Doggett accepted the invite … do you know if any of the Thursday night ladies are eating with us?”
“I think Betty is and her husband Stanley and I think Ellie is as well.”
“That’s 27 people, Scully. This is totally going to beat Thanksgiving by a mile.”
“There’s a chance she may actually have to expand into the living room.”
Mulder shook his head, “I can’t see your mom ever doing that. She’d rather stand and eat holding her plate than separate anybody.”
Hand resting on belly, “at least I’m still guaranteed a seat. It may not at the table but I will definitely not be standing.”
“Pshshht … not if I get to your seat first.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
The next few days were spent decking the halls and putting up Christmas trees, both in the living room and a tiny one in Will’s room. Stockings were hung, lights were strung, bells were rung, tinsel was flung.
Essentially, Christmas threw up in their apartment.
Mulder settled down Sunday night, baby monitor in hand, basking in the glow of Christmas lights, “your son is snoring.”
“He learned it from his father.” Coming to sit next to him, turning off lights as she went so only the Christmas lights were on by the time she snuggled up next to him, pulling a random afghan over their legs, “we have to go shopping. We have one week left.”
A look of utter fake horror crossed his face, “it just occurred to me why you married me. You were running out of money to buy those damn nieces and nephews their gifts and seized the opportunity.”
“You know me. Gold-digger Scully, here to take your wallet and your sperm.”
He choked on his own spit, coughing until his eyes watered and he couldn’t breathe without gasping.
She simply smiled at him and grabbed the pad of paper and pen she’d brought with her, “any ideas what to get them?”
His spluttering continued for another minute before he seized the paper and tossed it to the floor, attacking her with cold hands, “get over here, Scully.”
Struggling not to laugh too loudly, she wiggled and squirmed as his frigid digits invaded warm places, “I thought … we were watching … John McClane blow shit … up?!”
He loved broken sentences brought on by gasping fits of giggles but he stopped soon after, hovering over her, “I do not want to be thinking about Bruce Willis right now, thank you very much.”
“What if I do?”
Dropping his head into her neck, he rolled off her to the ground, catching a kiss as he went by, “you are an odd woman.”
Scully turned her head, hair static-sticking to the couch cushions as well as her forehead and cheeks, grin wide, “you picked me.”
“I wasn’t so much picking as pulled in and never wanting to leave.”
Her smile softened, “how about you take me to bed and neither of us thinks about Bruce Willis.”
Standing, he held out his hand, “I can’t guarantee it but I can try.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On…Thanksgiving …The Funeral
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
It was after midnight when there was a soft knock on the door. Mulder, moving with the speed of someone who didn’t want their seven-month old child awake, grabbed gun from nightstand, because habits die hard, and squinted out the peephole.
Pulling the door open, “what the hell are you doing here?”
Bill, Charlie, and Dave were standing there, bottles in hand, “we wanted to see if you’d like to come out and get a little drunk.”
Bill saw his blinking hesitation and, giving his brother-in-law a half-smile that washed away any final lingerings of ‘I hate you, you hate me’, “come on. A slug of whiskey is mandatory after a funeral.”
Mulder pointed into the darkened room behind him, “let me go tell Scully.”
The boys waited patiently in the hall while Mulder shook Scully’s shoulder and settled his gun back on the side table, “Scully? Hey, it’s me.”
“Don’t order the cheese sticks unless they have q-tips.”
That was a new one, “hey. Your brothers and Dave want to get me drunk. Are you okay with this? Smack me on the leg if that’s okay.”
He watched the covers move as her hand shifted underneath them, then unmistakable contact of knuckles to knee, “straighten out Will, then lock the door.”
Mulder smiled when he found that Will did indeed need straightening, having bunched himself up in the corner. Locking the door, he headed out to the hall, “where are we going?”
“The gym. It’s empty and far away from the front desk. The two selling points for drinking after hours in a hotel.”
Looking at Charlie, “how often do you do this?”
“Every funeral since we’ve all been able to drink so … God … a good seven, eight of them.”
“Shitty stats.”
“Hence the liquor, my friend.”
Once settled amongst the treadmills and bench presses, Mulder took his first swig of Long Island, passing on the whiskey, “this is what your sister and I like to drink after really bad cases. First we drink then we …”
He shut up quickly, blushing red at his future words in front of present brothers-in-law and cousins.
Charlie laughed, and even Bill smiled, “you’re working on your second and third kid; we’re okay with you having sex with our sister.
Without thought, “fourth and fifth kid.”
Dave tilted the bottle in his hand in Mulder’s direction, bobbing his head in acknowledgment, “fourth and fifth.”
They continued to drink and wade through the small, comfortable talk of people who have known each other for decades or at least for what felt like decades. Polite overtones took a screeching turn to the left around 1am when Mulder, head light and fluffy, aimed his gaze at Dave, “how come we never hear about your mom or dad?”
“Because my dad, Uncle Bill’s brother, is crap and my mom died on my 17th birthday.” Looking Mulder dead in the eye for a good four seconds, then grinning the grin of one who is two swigs away from completely gone, “Aunt Maggie took me in, clothed me, fed me, kept me from knocking off drug stores and mini-marts until I stumbled my way, completely by accident, into Joanna in front of the library on the first day of my junior year in college, her first year. She took over from there and without the two of them, I’d be a fucking mess.”
Taking a final swallow of Tea, Mulder handed the bottle to Dave, “finish this up and we’ll call it a toast to the Scully women for taking in any pitiful individual who shows up at their door.”
Dave drained the bottle, then let his head drop back to the wall, belching loudly, “I think I’m done.”
Bill leaned toward Mulder, “what was your mom’s favorite song?”
His brain open, muddled but relaxed, took a moment then, “I don’t know that it was her favorite but I know that whenever it came on the radio, she sang it or at least hummed.” Shutting his eyes to focus the memory, “American Pie.”
And then, out of nowhere, Bill began singing, Charlie and Dave joining in, with Mulder bringing up the rear, tears rolling silent down his cheeks.
Once the song faded on the word ‘die’, Mulder addressed them all quietly, “hopefully, wherever she is, she enjoyed that.”
&&&&&&&&
Around 3am, Dave and Charlie were snoring, leaning on each other and subsequently the wall, while Bill and Mulder, still hovering in the land of murky clarity, sat a foot apart against the wall caddy corner from them, “why do you always give Dana red M&Ms?”
Mulder had absolutely no idea anyone paid any attention to that, the least of whom was Bill, and he paused, 50% from liquor stupor, 50% from genuine amazement, “short version or long version?”
Taking a look at his snoring brother and his mouth-hanging-open cousin, “from the looks of them, the long version.”
So, in a quiet voice, Mulder told Bill an abridged version of their trip, up until their first shared peanut M&M, then he spoke, unintentionally with more reverence, of their house in the Outer Banks and how he’d been waiting so long that ‘I love you’ was perfection but red M&Ms were undeniable, “she red M&Ms me to Jupiter and back and I red M&M her to infinity and beyond.”
Bill absorbed all this, then gave Mulder a friendly half-smirk, “I think you and Dana are going to be fine.”
Mulder grinned back, hit with a warm, fuzzy feeling that should not be prompted by one Bill Scully, Jr., “I know we’re going to be fine but thanks for the brotherly stamp of approval.”
Bill went pink, possibly from liquor, possibly from embarrassment at what was to come but, “sorry for being such an asshat all these years. I didn’t know what to make of you at the beginning but … you’ve grown on me.”
“Like fungus?”
“Yeah, like that weird orange kind that grows on trees.”
Mulder held his hand out sideways for a shake, “friends?”
Bill took it, firm and accepting, “brothers. You’ve been inducted.”
They then watched as Charlie began sliding down the wall, landing on the floor and waking up with a snuffling grunt, “what happened?”
“You fell down, little brother.”
Charlie blinked several times, “where’s Dave?”
“He’s the heap beside you.”
Looking over, “gotcha,” then looking back to Bill and Mulder, “what the hell have you two been doing?”
“Being mature adults and handling our liquor.”
Straightening himself up, he looked first at Bill, then at his watch, “you were born an adult. Is it really after 3?”
Both Mulder and Bill looked at the clock on the wall simultaneously, “shit, yes, it is.”
Mulder’s stomach chose that moment to growl, “I’m hungry. You hungry?”
Dave roused at the sound of food talk and Mulder laughed, “you are so like Scully. I couldn’t wake her up with a drumroll beside the bed but whisper the word ‘sandwich’ from three rooms away and she’s up and opening the fridge.”
Dave looked around in confusion for a moment, then got his bearings, absorbing his words, “yeah, we’ve been doing midnight raids on the refrigerator since before I moved into Maggie’s house. She taught me well.” Looking at Bill and Mulder, “are either of you sober enough to drive?”
Both shook their head but Mulder piped up, “don’t forget there’s a Denny’s next door.”
No one cared about the state of their hair or clothing, pajama pants and t-shirts their only requirement and as a pack, they wandered through the lobby, making sure not to make eye contact with the desk clerk. It was a three-minute walk through the plowed parking lot, direct line of sight; it took them six with the stumbling and the pushing and shoving.
Mulder had absolutely no idea how he had ever gotten by without these people.
The shock came once they opened the door to the restaurant, finding the Gunmen eating pancakes and seasoned fries at one of the tables. Seeing them, Frohike waved, “good morning, gentlemen. Pull up some chairs.”
And they did, ordering vast amounts of pancakes and waffles and, because Mulder now lived with Scully, several orders of severely burned bacon. The sun was just tinging the sky pink when everyone collectively sat back, stuffed and sleepy, sober and subdued. Mulder looked each one of them in the eye for a moment before, “thank you. Without Scully and this family, last night would have consisted of me and a bottle and possibly a gun to my head. Scully keeps telling me that her people are my people but I think, right now, I finally believe that you all are ‘our’ people and I’ve never had that and I appreciate and cherish it more than you’ll ever know.”
Quiet hung until Dave fake sniffed and pretended to blow his nose on his napkin, “aww, that was beautiful. Let’s go material shopping for the friendship quilt we absolutely have to make now.”
Everyone chuckled but Bill, who studied Mulder carefully, gave him the patent Scully eyebrow, “if you ever, and I mean ever, debate that gun, you call me. Understand?”
And Mulder acknowledged with a nod, “understood.”
&&&&&&&&&
Mulder let himself back in the room just as Scully was sitting up in bed. About to say ‘good morning’ to her, she then jumped up, scooted past him, nearly knocking him to the ground on her way to the toilet. Coming in to rub her back, “I’m sorry.”
“For getting me pregnant, I forgive you. For getting a hotel without a bathroom rug for me to kneel on, you shall burn in the eternal hellfire.” Done, she held out her hand to him, “help me up. I think I broke my knees when I hit the ground.”
Brushing their teeth together, single sink forcing Scully down low while Mulder went up top. Once spitting was complete, “how was your little escapade?”
“80 proofed and really good.” Giving her a rundown, “and we just got back from Denny’s so I am now sober and oddly, feeling no hangover.”
“Pancakes will do that for you.” With a kiss, “need a nap or ready to get out of here?”
“We still have to stop by Veronica’s but I’m fine with getting ready to go.”
The texting began a few minutes later, phones blowing up with plans of driving home, getting breakfast, Sam’s request to ride with Aunt Maggie, Uncle Skimmer, Betty, and Will. Mulder stopped in the middle of the room, holding Will’s car seat, Will included, and just stared at his phone. Scully turned to see why he wasn’t behind her and seeing him stalled, came back, “you okay?”
“I will never, never, ever, understand how I got all these people.”
“Package deal, my friend. We do weddings, birthdays, and sadly, the occasional funeral.” Kissing his upper arm because she didn’t feel like trying to reach his face in flat shoes, “I think we should change your last name to Scully and be done with it.”
Mulder smiled, “don’t tempt me although everyone would still call me Uncle Mudler.”
“Very true and we can’t let that go. It’s too perfect.” Looking at him critically, “do you want everyone to head to Veronica’s or would you rather I send them ahead and ask Mom to keep Will until we pick him up?”
He thought about it a moment, “I don’t plan on staying too long but I’m not sure how long not long is. It might be easier if we don’t have to feel rushed.”
“Done.”
&&&&&&&&&&
They were actually only about a half-hour behind the rest of the family, and by lunch, they had caught up, arriving at the same time the sandwiches and fries did. Mulder laughed at the sight of Charlie wearing his sunglasses inside, “feeling the Tea?”
“Little bit. It’s been a quiet ride home.”
Sarah laughed at him, patting his cheek, “it hasn’t been quiet at all. He’s been snoring in the backseat.” Aiming a thumb to the bearded man beside her, “Byers jumped in with me and we’ve been keeping each other awake with the License Plate game and general trivia challenges.”
Joanna one-upped them, “I’ve got Bill and Dave correcting my students’ English essays. Bill’s been reading them out loud and then we argue about sentence structure.”
“That sounds like a party right there.”
She grinned at Mulder, “to English geeks, it is a party.” Taking a bit of her sandwich, she regarded him, “how are you doing?”
“To be brutally honest, okay for now, I’ll feel worse tomorrow, I imagine.” Looking around the table in general, lingering on Maggie and Sam, before speaking again, “right now, I just want to thank you for coming here with me. I never could have expected, in all my years, to find people like you and to get to call them family on top of friends. It’s amazing to me.”
Bill tossed a sugar packet at Mulder, bouncing it off his forehead, “who said we were friends?”
The sugar packet was returned in jest, a small grin as well, “you did, when you called me your brother.”
“Damn it. I forgot about that.”
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants…The Secret Vault of Mudlerness…Taco Night…Neckhole Wrestling…The Onesie…Multiplication…Catching On …Thanksgiving
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&
They sat upstairs for a few minutes while Mulder first cried, then shored himself back up, “you don’t have to go back down. We can get out of here, go pack some things, drive up to the house.”
Mulder shook his head, “I’d rather go downstairs, have dessert, pretend nothing happened.”
“Mulder.”
Moving his hand to her thigh, he squeezed it, absorbing the warmth in his shock-cold fingers, “Scully. It occurred to me when I walked back into the kitchen earlier that, with mo—,” quick deep breath in, “with mom gone, I have one aunt left.” Now running his hand up and down, firm muscle under stretchy cotton, “one aunt and everyone downstairs in that kitchen. I need to stay here as long as I can.”
She knew she should argue with him but nodded instead, “okay. Go wash your face and blow your nose and then we’ll go down and demand sugar.” Standing, she moved between his knees, hugging his head, “I am very glad you called her earlier.”
About to start crying again, he drew a deep breath, then sighed it out heavily, “me, too.”
A few minutes later, they wandered back downstairs in time to see Byers starting to teach the older kids how to juggle, Dave right in there with them, wadded up socks in both hands. Mulder clapped his hands together and joined in, “room for one more?”
Scully, in turn, leaned against the doorframe, watching him interact, smile, enveloped in the warmth of 20 people who would do absolutely anything for him.
Dessert followed about a half-hour later, and eventually, the house began to empty, Scully and Mulder hanging back, Will awake and playing with Skinner on the carpet of the front room. When it was finally just them, Mulder dropped to the couch with Maggie settling immediately beside him, “honey, what’s wrong?” And he fell apart, Maggie’s arms instantly around him, cradling him, “Fox. Who called earlier?”
He told her and Skinner in quiet tones about his mother’s stroke and simply not waking up from her nap. Maggie, still holding him close, kissed him lightly on the top of his head, whispering through his hair, “I know you don’t want to hear this but she may have gone in the best way possible.”
Mulder nodded, sitting back up and unabashedly wiping his nose with his hand, one large sniff before, “I know.”
“Aww, honey,” hugging his arm one last time, “I’m so sorry.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
Maggie and Skinner offered to keep Will for the night but simply wanting to take wife and child home, Mulder countered with, “I’d like to have him with us tonight but are you possibly available if we decide not to take him up to mom’s?”
“Of course.”
Mulder was exhausted by the time they got home, got Will settled and asleep, took some drugs for the pounding headache thumping behind his eye. Waiting until they heard their son’s light snores over the baby monitor, Scully took Mulder’s hand, leading him to the bedroom and sitting him down, returning once again to the spot between his knees so she could hug him to her, “I love you.”
Eyes wet but not overflowing, he pulled back a minute later, looking up at her, “I don’t know what to do. I wasn’t here for dad’s funeral and we never had one for Sam so I have no idea.” His hands on her waist now, looking for any warm skin to counter the deep cold settling at his core, “do we even do a funeral? I don’t think she had many friends and there’s no family but us.”
Meeting her forehead to his, only having to lean forward slightly, the advantages of a higher set bed, “why don’t you call your aunt and talk to her? You mom may have laid all that out years ago and you won’t have to worry about it.”
His thumbs ran into each other over her belly button, her rounded abdomen firm and warm, “I know I’m 35 and some change but do I call myself an ‘orphan’ now? I mean, there has to be a category for an adult without parents.”
Swallowing hard at the thought of her mother not being around to call or harass or fling mashed potatoes at during random family dinners, “I think it just falls under ‘lonely’.” Tracing his eyebrows once she pulled back, “why don’t you go call Veronica and I’ll make us some hot chocolate?”
Lifting Scully’s shirt up, he kissed her belly, speaking to the skin, “I will never leave either of you or your brother.”
“Charlie will be pleased to hear that.”
Half a second smile graced his lips, “smartass.”
“Don’t be calling your kids names.”
He allowed two tears to escape, to run down her skin and absorb into cotton before, “lots of whip cream.”
“Tons.”
&&&&&&&&&&&
Maggie spread the news around the family, and, because their own father’s death was always near the surface, they simply texted Scully their condolences to be passed on to Mulder, then they remained quiet. Except for Joanna.
“Mulder. I know what it’s like, to lose both. Mine died within weeks of each other thirteen years ago and I can’t tell you it’ll get better. Call if you need me.”
Mulder rolled toward Scully, setting his mug on the coffee table in the process, then showed her the text, “you have the most perfect family. You realize that?”
“Don’t equate loud and accepting with perfect. We are a collective pain in the ass most of the time.”
The truth sank in once again, as it had been every few minutes since the first phone call, “but you’re all my collective pain in the ass.”
&&&&&&&&&&
There was no funeral; just a simple graveside service but it was the people who came that made him cry harder than anything. Maggie and Skinner with Will. Dave and Joanna, with Sam who would not be left behind because it was his Uncle Mudler and because the funeral was where he needed to be. Bill. Langley, Byers, and Frohike. Charlie and Sarah. Betty, who drove up with Maggie. Tara was home with a bronchitis-hacking Graham and the rest of the kids who were too young to be there.
He also tried to fight the tears, until he saw Sam and Joanna crying freely for a woman they’d never met.
Mulder, once the service was finished and people were turning, placing hands on his arm or back in consolation, moving toward cars to follow his lead whenever he was ready, set his hand on Scully’s back, “Scully?”
She leaned into him as usual, bones and muscles taking her an automatic two inches from him, “yeah?”
“I love you. I love you and your people who are now my people and just …” waving him hands towards the departing group, “I don’t know what I would do without any of you.”
With a quick kiss to his cheek, “well, you’re never getting rid of any of us so don’t waste your time thinking about it.”
Guiding her in the general direction of the family, he saw that they had loosely surrounded Veronica, making small talk with genuine interest and he was happy to see his aunt reciprocating, allowing herself the interaction instead of taking to silence.
Before Mulder could mention further plans, Veronica smiled at him, “your mother-in-law has just informed me that I have been adopted into the family and I informed her back that, in celebration of such an adoption, that I would like everyone to come back to my house, where we will order pizza and possibly make snowmen.”
Everyone would be driving out the next morning so venture to Veronica’s they did, spending the rest of the afternoon into the evening telling stories and getting better acquainted. Mulder had been going through his mother’s things and told Veronica, before they left for the evening, that he would be back up after Christmas to finish up, if that was okay with her.
Veronica nodded, “I’m not going anywhere and neither are the boxes.”
Joanna, who had bonded quite tightly with the older woman over a mutual love of quilting, “would you like to come down to spend Christmas with us? It’s loud and obnoxious but the food is wonderful and the company is excellent.”
Seriously not used to such a crowd of people, Veronica debated for almost four seconds before she smiled and patted Joanna’s arm, “I think I would like that. I will let you know in two weeks once I see how snowed in I might be.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Later that night, Scully settled on the edge of the motel bed, “you know, I have a feeling, if given enough time, Joanna will be able to convince your aunt to move down closer to us.”
Mulder, shutting off the bathroom light behind him and taking an automatic quick glance at Will, asleep in the portable crib, “I don’t think she’d want to leave her home but we could probably persuade her to visit us and,” his expression changing to sadness, “we should visit her. I don’t … I know we never found the time or the energy to really visit Mom but maybe, maybe, I can keep the last bit of my family … do right by her.”
Standing, Scully wrapped her arms around him, “my money’s still on Jo, just saying.”
