A/N: Here is another oldie I found on my harddrive. I wanted to try writing a chapter for every song on a Relient k album to catch glimpses following that final scene in Season 8 and probably going well into Season 9. Anyway, the album is Five Score and Seven Years Ago. The title was an homage to the band's success- five albums in seven years- and I thought I could play on that by saying One Score and Eight Years Ago. Obviously, Mulder and Scully have more achievements/accomplishments than William, but why count them all? lol As for right now, it's a completed one-shot because I'd like to someday finish my other dust-gathering fics. After that, who knows? So without any further ado...
Even as her eyelids drooped, Dana Scully forced them open resisting any urges to fall into a deep sleep. As she silently watched her newborn son's chest rise and fall, she traced gentle circles on his chest with her finger. She smiled as he twitched in his sleep, remembering that only a few days before she had felt the same sleeping habits taking place inside of her. The smile faded as she looked over William at her partner. Fox Mulder's eyes were just as heavy as hers, but he hadn't stopped smiling since he had arrived earlier that night. His index finger remained locked in his son's grip, his head propped up on the other hand.
Scully frowned at the top of his dark head, thinking back on the emotional roller coaster he had left her on over the past year. He had given her William, only to leave her as he was abducted. When he was returned, she buried him, only to exhume him and save his life three months later. She watched him struggle when he finally came home, not sure where he belonged in her life, not sure what to think of the large protrusion in her abdomen, not even sure that the protrusion was his. Now they were planning how to move him out of D.C. for his own safety and she would be losing him all over.
He sensed her distress and their eyes finally met over their son's sleeping form, the only thing that she could read in his expression was pure, raw love for her and their son. Gently, he slipped his finger out of William's grasp and cupped her cheek with his hand. He only smiled reassuringly as the tears spilled over from her eyes. "Hey," he whispered, using his thumb to catch the few tears that slid over her cheeks. "It's going to be okay. Don't think about it right now, Scully, okay? We've made it through worse than this."
"Mulder…" her voice caught in her throat and she reached up and closed her fingers around his much larger hand. He leaned over their son and kissed her forehead. "Mulder," she whispered, as they rested their foreheads against each other. She closed her eyes. "I don't know how many more days I can go without you."
There were few moments when Scully had ever appeared so vulnerable in front of Mulder, but with their son sleeping between them she had never felt so weak in her entire life. She wanted to live in this moment forever. She wanted to forget that tomorrow they would be working out every detail of his disappearance. In all her life, she had never been happier than she was at that very moment. It was the best thing that could be happening, despite that with every ticking minute, she was losing that much more time with him.
She lifted William and set him in the bassinet beside her bed before turning back to her beloved. In similar respect, Mulder rarely, if ever, showed emotions in front of Scully, but as he watched his son sleep soundly beside Scully's bed, tears pooled in his eyes. He rubbed vigorously at his eyes, trying to claw away the tears, but as Scully pulled his head to her chest, the first sob wracked his body even as he tried to stay strong for Scully and he wrapped his arms around her waist. She held him to her tightly and kissed the top of his dark head repeatedly. Eventually, they sank down in the pillows as fatigue took over and clung to each other desperately, knowing that as the dawn's light started to filter through the windows, the time lessened until they lost their other half.
The song is called "The Best Thing" -Relient k, Five Score and Seven Years Ago