Christmas 2010
Part 1
by Trycee
Timeline: Post IWTB, Christmas 2010
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files, it's owned by Chris Carter.
Mulder and Scully Residence
Somewhere in Virginia
8 p.m. Living Room
Scully was dressed in her silk pj's with a short collar and pants. Mulder dressed in his pajama bottoms, was working on securing the tree to the tree base, when he finished he stood back to admire his work. The 8 ft tall tree towered over Scully."Mulder...", she sighed. "Why would you get a tree that could crush me if it falls? I can't even reach the top...neither can you..."
"Some of us aren't midgets, Scully," he said with a laugh as he placed the step stool in front of the tree.
Scully raised an eyebrow giving him her look but he kept his eyes off of her, just until she looked away. When she did, he smirked and chuckled to himself.
"Mulder, who are you trying to impress anyway? Its just the family coming...This tree takes up most of the space in the living room."
Mulder looked around the small home. "I'm putting some of these extra chairs downstairs...It'll give us more room..."
Scully tore open the dusty ornaments box. "We don't have enough ornaments for this ginormous tree, Mulder..."
"We do have the most important thing," he said, walking into the open door of his office and coming back with a box.
Scully looked up from where she was seated on the floor, sifting through their meager ornaments. "What's that?"
"Our tree topper," he smiled.
She watched as Mulder tore open the brown box exposing another more colorful box with the words UFO written on them.
"You can't be serious," she said as her eyes bulged.
She quickly walked over to Mulder by the tree and snatched the box out of his hands. "Mulder...a UFO tree topper?"
"Classy isn't it?", he smirked.
"Fuel for Bill's wrath is more like it, Mulder..."
"My house Scully..."
"Whose house?", she said with a raised eyebrow.
"Our house...", he corrected himself. "I can put on the top of my tree what I want and if Bill has something to say, he can say it out there in the snow!", he said, pointing to the acreage of their land that surrounded their home.
"It's tacky," she said, pulling out the green, blue and red plastic UFO tree topper.
"Its perfect," he said, grabbing it from her hands and walking over to the step stool.
She watched as he placed it on top of the tree. "How is it?", he asked.
"Its you for sure," she smirked.
"Good," he smiled as he stepped down. "Now where are those vintage UFO ornaments Scully?"
"Not them...Mulder...come on...everyone's coming here...", she whined.
"Scully...we are decorating it our way...", he chastised. "You got them?"
She leaned down to the box and pulled out the set of twelve disc shaped UFOs made out of glass. He'd ordered them the year before off of Ebay. He hung them with a smile on his face. Scully couldn't help but smile too as she watched his excitement as he decorated their tree. She handed him another box with blue and white miniature driedels and menorah's that he hung up as well. "Looks like a Hanukkah Bush," he said, proudly.
"With a UFO landing on top," she said dryly.
Mulder scratched at his bare chest. "You know Scully...the story goes that when Moses went up into Mt. Moriah to speak to God he was actually being abducted by Aliens..."
"Mulder, that's Mt. Sinai," she corrected.
"Well...you know all those biblical encounters of angels and flying chariots were actually UFO sightings and encounters...", he said, standing near her.
She sighed. "I'm ignoring you Mulder..."
"Scully...you know it to be true...You found it written on the UFO...You know it to be true..."
Scully shrugged. "I know they exist...I know what I saw...I know they were here first...but can you please let me keep some of my faith?", she said annoyed.
Mulder touched her shoulder. "Sorry, Scully...", he said saddened.
She looked up into Mulder's hazel eyes. "You're not annoying me, Mulder...Its not that...you know how edgy I get this time of the year...:
He nodded that he did and leaned in for a kiss. "Don't focus on it, Scully...Focus on the fact that we don't have long before we find him..."
She sighed loudly but Mulder pulled her back close to him for another kiss. They're lips met and they kissed patiently as he tried to distract her from her seasonal depression. "I love you..."
"Ditto," she smiled. "Shouldn't there be Christmas cookies...Eggnog and Christmas Carols while we're decorating?", she said, pulling away and heading for the large box.
"Do you really want me drinking eggnog before bed?", he smirked.
She whipped around to face him. "Never mind..."
Mulder smiled as he stepped back once more admiring his handiwork. "So...how's it look so far?"
"It's very you...this tree spells...FOX MULDER..."
"Well, I'm not the only one here. Woman...Get to decorating!" he teased.
Scully grabbed up a plastic ball ornament and aimed it for Mulder's head but he ducked. "I'm still spry, Scully."
"The fact that you used the word 'spry' Mulder, shows your aging by the second.", she said, as she placed a few angel ornaments on the tree where she could reach.
"If you need me too, I can boost you up here.", he said pointing to the top of the tree.
"Knowing you, you wouldn't keep your hands to yourself," she giggled.
Mulder slid his hand down over her bottom. "I could never do that."
"I know, doing stuff like that is why we're so sexually active", she smiled.
"I thought it was because we'd denied ourselves so long we're trying to make up for lost time."
Scully placed a few Santa Clause ornaments to counteract Mulder's UFO ornaments. "Mulder. I think we did that for the first few months when we were on the run, like bunnies, the rest was just us...being us..."
"And eight years later we haven't slowed down once...", he smiled.
"This is getting dangerous," she said, backing away from him. "We need to concentrate on the tree and getting the house together," she said, switching on the stereo system.
A choir sang out, "Silent Night" and Scully began to hum the tune.
"God, You're not gonna sing are you?", he said, hooking a few of her ornaments on the tree.
"I'm not that bad," she startled. "Am I?"
"Actually I think you're adorable when you sing. Off key but its still adorable.", he chuckled.
"You can't sing either Mulder," she said, shooting him a look.
"That's why I lip-sync...", he grinned.
Scully smiled lovingly back at him as she threw on tinsel. "So, did you figure out where we're gonna put all these people?"
"Well, one of your brother's and wife can stay up in the finished attic...Thank goodness we fixed that up not too long ago.", he said, as he stood up on the step-ladder to add ornaments to the top of the tree. "Your mother can stay in the guest room. And then another brother and wife can sleep in one of the offices in a nice queen sized blow-up bed. Charles two sons can either share a blow-up bed in one of the offices or sleep out here with Matthew in the pull-out couch or on one of the other sofa. "
"You bought blow-up beds?", she said alarmed.
"These are really nice ones with a base at the bottom and they're push button."
Scully looked horrified. "Mulder, they'll probably deflate."
"They're better than a cot," he huffed.
"I'll rent some beds in the morning," she sighed.
"Scully we have a small house, there's not that much room."
"Mulder, could we not argue?", she said, looking up to him on the ladder. "I just thought I'd like to take the stress off mom this year..."
"You are," he said softly. "I just don't want you all wound up."
"I won't be!", she said strained as she handed him a few ornaments. "Its just they've never been here before. They've never spent any time here with us...I'm feeling a little hurt about it and then on top of that adding all the different personalities."
"And your brother Bill..."
"I think I would be less stressed if it weren't for Bill."
The phone rang and Scully reached for the reciever. She talked a few moments before placing it back on the phone dock. "Mom's boyfriend is coming?"
"Oooh goody...", he smirked. "Someone I get to talk too the entire visit when everyone else is ignoring me..."
"I won't ignore you", she said. "But so that's now...us two, Bill, Tara, Matthew, Willis and Mom."
"Scully, do you think you're mom and Willis are sleeping together?", he said with his face twisted up in disgust.
"Mulder, " she said shooting him a deadly look. "If you ask that question again, you'll be sleeping on the blow-up bed!", she warned. "And Charles, Jill, Junior, Patrick and that's it."
"That's plenty enough."
"So what do we need to do tomorrow morning?", she said to more to herself than him.
"Rent the beds. We only need the two for the offices. I've got to make some space in my office," he grinned.
"And hide your magazine collection," she said with a raised brow.
"Oh come on, Scully. You know the minute I got you in my bed finally, I handed them off to Froehike."
"And when the Gunmen died Mulder, you inherited them back along with Froehike's even larger stash."
"I was gone. I don't know what happened to them", he said, climbing down the ladder. "You were the one that knows."
Scully looked guilty."Oh yeah, I got rid of them."
"I knew the minute you could you would."
"Of course I would."
He looked down into her sparkling blue eyes. "Besides the real thing is so...so much better."
"I am, aren't I?', she said in a low tone. "Mulder? How does every conversation we have end up back to one thing Well, two? Sex or Aliens and in this case, Sex?"
Mulder shook his head. "Because we're hot for each other", he said, wrapping his arms around her..."What were we talking about?"
"Something about what we have to do tomorrow," she grinned. "Our to do list before everyone arrives."
"Well, you went shopping for food already. I need to shovel the driveway and path up to the gate and beyond. You have to make-up the beds."
"You can't make up the beds?", she said, as she wrapped her arms around his waist, enjoying the feel of him.
"Do I fix our bed now?"
"Good point," she sighed.
"I think that's pretty much it besides wrapping up gifts. Did you get me a life sized doll with red hair, that's cute and petite and highly sexual?", he said wiggling his eyebrows. "Is that what Santa brought me?"
"A very long time ago," she smiled, letting her hands slide across his waist.
"Its been my best gift ever.", he said, kissing the top of her head. "Oh Scully, you forgot some ornaments.", he said, releasing her and walking over to the box.
Scully stiffened up as he reached down and pulled out the last two remaining ornaments. He read the names written on it and then looked over to her. "You want to put them on the tree? With the others?", he said, pointing to where every family member's ornament hung off an evergreen branch.
"You do it," she said calmly.
Mulder placed Emily's and William's ornament on the tree next to the rest of the families ornaments, including her's and Mulder's. He then kissed her softly on the cheek. "Let's light this baby up," he said, trying to distract her.
"Okay", she smiled, as she held his hand, refusing to release it.
He pulled her with him as he turned on the lights and lit up the tree. "Mulder that UFO spins," she said delighted.
Mulder was pleased. "Wait a second, it blinks..."
They watched as the bottom of the UFO lit up with multiple lights and then faded away as it spinned. They stood there arm in arm watching as the lights blinked and chased. "Let's light a fire, Mulder," Scully said, pulling him over to the fireplace. "And get us some wine, at least and a few Christmas cookies."
"As you wish," he smiled.
Scully sat down on the couch with an afghan from the back of the sofa and draped it over herself. She waited for Mulder to return with the goodies. He brought two wine glasses filled with the red liquid and two sugar cookies leftover from her earlier baking spree. He placed them on the coffee table and then sat down in front of the fireplace sparking a fire. He waited until the instant fire logs caught fire and then closed the fireplace screen, sitting down next to her, wrapping her in his arms. "That's beautiful," he said, as he watched the UFO spin. "This has to be the best tree we ever got..."
"The biggest and the best," she agreed.
She reached for both cookies. "Now you get to eat a cookie without getting your hands smacked," she grinned, bringing the cookie up to Mulder's lips.
He smiled and opened his mouth for her to feed him. He chewed on the cookie and then did the same for her. They kissed again lightly and then he handed her the wine. "Too bad we can't have anything so pretty all year long."
"I know but we'd get bored by it if it were.", she whispered.
"True", he said, settling in next to her as she laid her head on his shoulder.
They watched the UFO spin and the Christmas lights flash until they both fell asleep on the couch. The next day, the bright sunlight flooded the living room, casting a glow over their faces. They were still asleep, wrapped arm and arm, with Mulder slid down to the armrest and Scully asleep on his leg.
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