Disclaimer: The characters of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder & The X-Files universe belong to Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions. For me, they also belong to the gifted minds of GA and DD without whom those characters might not have been so intense. I don't intend to steal anything or to make any money with this. This is purely a creative game, a way to train my brain cells, so to speak. It's supposed to be fun & my compensation for the only storyline I had a hard time "accepting" on The X-Files... Timeline: after "The Truth".
Family Blues
Scully was sitting on her bed. She hadn't been able to sleep since he had called her. She was confused. What should she do, now? She hadn't ever expected to receive a call like that. She wasn't prepared, not now, not ever. How could she have been prepared for that? After all they'd been through. After all the time. It seemed to be an eternity for her. The minutes since the call seemed to be creeping and she couldn't help but allow a tear to fall down her pillow-warm cheek. That was when she felt his hands embracing her. She wasn't startled to feel him awake. She was never startled at his touch. But she trembled. And she could feel the concern in his closing embrace. All she had to do now was to let herself fall, into his welcoming arms. But he pulled her back already, all so carefully and all so tenderly. He placed a soft kiss on the back of her head and whispered "Who was that?" into her messy hair. She had closed her eyes to his kiss, indulging into his tender treatment and wondering if she might only have dreamed the words she had just heard on the phone. She slowly opened her eyes again when she felt his concern deepen. "John. It's been John."
Mulder turned around to face her, caressing her wet cheek. "What did he want?" His eyes shortly wandered to the alarm clock on Scully's bed table. "At 2.30 a.m.?" Then his eyes were fully focused on her again, studying the pressed and tired smile on her beautiful lips. "Honey?"
Scully couldn't help but lean her head against his bare shoulders and nuzzled close. He felt her need to be held and embraced her tenderly. The light was shining onto her hair, illuminating it in a warm fiery tone. He started to hug her closer when he felt another tear running down her cheek and started to place loving kisses on her head. He knew that she would talk to him as soon as she had found the right words to do so. He knew that, sometimes, she needed some time and he was willing to give her all the time she would need.
"Dana," he whispered again. "What is it?"
He was just too concerned to not at least try to tickle the reason for her despair out of her. "If you'll go on crying like that, you'll convince me to sing for you. At this hour of the day. And believe me, that will make you really cry."
He smiled into her hair, hoping to feel a little smile on her lips. He wasn't sure though of her reaction and started singing in a hoarse voice, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog...".
Scully's smile broadened and she placed a lingering kiss on his chest. But Mulder didn't stop, "... was a good friend of mine..." and she had to raise her head, meeting his mockery grin just in front of her bright blue eyes.
She silenced his attempts to continue singing with a soft kiss. "Please, don't do that." And another. "Ever again."
"Now I'm officially hurt." Mulder smirked at her. "There I thought that I could have a prosperous career outside of the FBI." He cupped her face into his warm hands, caressing her cheeks softly with his thumbs.
"Now, what is it, love?"
She shortly closed her eyes again, taking a deep breath before giving him a sad smile. "Mulder, John just called to inform us that there's been an accident."
"An accident?" Mulder asked quietly. "Is your mom okay?"
Scully nodded.
"Your brother?"
She nodded again.
"Yes, don't worry. No one we personally knew." She took another deep breath. "However, it personally affects the two of us. And..." Mulder had put his hands down onto hers, sending shivers down her spine while caressing her hands absent-minded. How she loved when he was treating her so tenderly. "And I actually don't know what this will mean for us right now."
"Honey, I don't understand. Do you mean that we are somehow involved in the accident of some people we didn't even know?" Mulder was confused and felt reminded of the days when he himself had used to confuse her like that.
Scully bit her lower lip, a habit she had just recently developed when she felt that she had to choose her words carefully. "Mulder, darling, I don't know how I could explain it without destroying hopes that I know you had since you were able to return to me."
Now he was confused, alright. "Dana, please, just tell me. You are scaring me."
Scully leaned in to kiss him. Tender at first, more passionate when she felt his hand moving down her back. She struggled while breaking from their kiss. She wanted to hold him, wanted to make love to him, right now. But she knew that he had to know. He had to know before she would try to love his pain away. She sighed.
"There's been an accident in Wyoming. A young family was killed. A middle-aged mother and father with a toddler boy."
Mulder looked at her inquiringly. He saw the sadness in her eyes, a sadness she wasn't willing to let dawn in, a sadness she was afraid to pass on him.
"The little boy was called William."
Mulder felt pain in his heart when her words dawned on him. The look in her eyes. Her very vivid and sparkling eyes, darkened and gray. "William?" was all he could utter, and he wasn't even sure if she had heard him.
Scully swallowed a sudden wave of panic and nausea. She shut her eyes, feeling another tear dropping on her lap, and nodded ever so lightly.
"Yes."
She wasn't able to say much more. Her voice was shaking and all she could force herself to do was whisper. "Monica confirmed that it's been William's adoptive parents."
She felt another wave of panic rolling over her and his arms, pulling her into a needy embrace. "Mulder, our son.", she whispered under her breath, "He's supposedly dead."
When she felt his first tear falling on her hair, his trembling body against hers and the sound of his heartbeat stopping for an instant, she felt the wave of pain washing over her.
She had been so afraid of his reaction. Afraid of being shut out by his pain. That he would start to reject her, hate her for the decision she had been forced to make. All she could feel now was his need to be held. His need to be with her, to hold her instead of William. To allow his tears to fall, to show his sorrow. She was the only person who was able to stop his heart from breaking. And she wanted to be there, for him. And for him alone. She wasn't able to face the gruesome reality, not now. She hadn't been able to cope with having given him away - how could she cope with his death? She wished that John had never spoken those words. Never told her about that accident. Never stirred up those hurting feelings, this heartache.
She felt a sudden need of a more intimate closeness. She needed to be loved, to be soothed, to be held together. She wouldn't allow herself to break on this. She hadn't broken over Mulder's supposed death. She hadn't broken over the loss of her sister or her father. She hadn't broken over all the fears she had had to face before and after William's birth. And she wasn't willing to give in now. If she couldn't hold her son, at least, she wanted to feel the man who so lovingly had given her William.
She started to kiss his tears away, hungrily and with an obvious touch of despair. He could feel her craving and he shared her pain. How could he not respond to her desperate cry for salvation? He kissed her, passionately, sadly, hungrily. He longed for her soft touch, her tender hands who had healed his wounds so many times before. And he wished to fill her broken heart with life.
Skinner knocked a third time. They were home, Doggett had assured him of that. Now, where the hell could they be? His knocking was insistent now.
"Dana? Mulder? It's Skinner!"
He waited. Did he hear a sound? "Please, open the door."
He had been right, he heard the sound of the keys being turned and the door opened to the half-lit apartment of Dana Scully.
Mulder stood at the other end of the door, his hair messed up, his eyes red, his lips swollen. "Walter. A little early for breakfast, don't you think?".
It was a sad remark, but Mulder couldn't help but use his humor to push away the gripping feeling of loss.
"Mulder, where is Dana?" Skinner looked around worriedly. He half expected her to enter from the bathroom, fully dressed, with her badge and gun, ready to solve the mystery of her son's case. "Mulder?"
Mulder replied quietly, "She'll be here soon. She needed a shower."
And Skinner understood. He saw Mulder's struggle of feelings and padded his shoulder.
"Everything will be fine." He gave him a reassuring smile.
Mulder didn't feel like smiling back. He didn't feel that he would ever have the energy to smile again. He felt empty and trance-like. The heat of Scully's body had soothed him momentarily, but he was floating back into a state of shock and denial.
"Mulder, Monica and John are on their way. They should be here any minute. They took the next plane from Wyoming. They will be able to fill you in with the details."
Mulder felt his head nodding and he turned at the sound of Scully's silent steps into the room. She was wrapped in her cozy white bathrobe and shot a sad look at Skinner to great him. She immediately looked for the healing comfort of his embrace and pressed her shower-wet hair against his barely heaving chest.
"Monica and John are going to be here any minute," Mulder managed to whisper underneath a soft kiss.
Skinner turned away from the intimacy of his former agents. He didn't want to intrude on their privacy and had learned that their affection for each other grew in moments of transition and emotion. He was happy when he heard a soft knocking on the door and rushed to open it.
"John, where is Monica?" Skinner looked down the corridor, and wondered what kind of excuse his agent would offer.
"Don't worry, Sir. She'll be up in an instant. She just has to gather a couple of things and wanted us to do the dirty work." He smiled.
When he saw Mulder and Scully in their intimate embrace, he couldn't help but shoot a knowing and pitiful look at his AD. "Well, honey-bunch and poopy-head, how are you?" He rolled his eyes when he realized that he hadn't actually meant to sound rude or improper. "What I meant was, how are you guys?"
He hadn't expected much of a reaction, but to get none was surprising for him, to say the least. He had never met Mulder to be short of remarks. And Dana? She looked so frail, so crushed. His heart went out to them and he had the distinct feeling that he had once shared the pain they were going through right now.
"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to sit." He moved towards the couch, indicating to Skinner to remain at the door. "Actually, I'd like to sit with the two of you. So, please."
He padded the empty couch next to him and moved his head and right hand towards it. "C'mon, I don't bite."
Still, not much of a reaction. But at least, he had managed to convince them to sit next to him. But they were still a bundle of sorrow. Mulder hugged Dana who was shivering and barely able to keep control over her feelings. His hands were caressing her and holding hers as if he was afraid that she could disappear if he let go off her.
John shot an irritated glance at Skinner who could only answer with a slight shrug.
"Okay then, " Doggett started, re-addressing them. "Like I told you on the phone, Dana, there's been an accident that resulted in the death of William's adoptive family."
He couldn't help but put his hand on Scully's leg when he went on, feeling her grief. "Dana, everything's going to be okay now."
Mulder was the first one to recognize Doggett's concern and change of intonation. "He'll be fine."
Mulder shot an intensive look at Doggett, unbelieving about what he might want to imply. "What do you mean? He'll be fine? Who?"
John smiled broadly. "William of course. He was examined and he doesn't even have a scratch."
Scully raised her head, never leaving the security of Mulder's arms.
"Monica is just gathering his stuff and will bring him up any time now."
Scully breathed in sharply. She turned to Mulder whose heart was beating faster and faster with each second. Before she could form her lips into a relieved smile, her eyes betrayed her overwhelmed interior and Mulder rediscovered her intriguing sparkle of wit and joy in them. Before he could think straight, he had pulled her into a lingering kiss that didn't break until they heard another soft knocking on the door.
Monica didn't know how to judge the scenery. John was smiling with an irritated rolling of his eyes. Skinner seemed to be happy for her to finally arrive and helped her with some bags. And before she could fully realize it, Scully and Mulder were standing in front of her, with tears in their eyes and a grin in their faces. She could swear that she detected a wrinkle she had never before seen on Scully's forehead and she noticed Mulder's shaking hands.
With a life-embracing smile, Monica presented William to his loving parents. "Here we are, William. Home."
She showed him around a little in his toddler seat. "I'm sure you remember. Your mommy. Hmm, Do you remember her voice, her smell? And your daddy. Yes, look. They are so happy to see you."
With another broad smile, Monica handed William to his mother who was immediately kissing her son and looking at Mulder with a delirious happiness. He hugged his lover and his son as close as he could, caressing, kissing and nuzzling them without any shame in respect to the audience.
After a while, Scully managed to think straight again and asked huskily. "What does this mean, Monica? Why did you bring him here?"
Monica had taken her seat next to Skinner and John on the couch and beamed with joy. "Well, with the conviction that you had been in a devastating situation when you decided to give up William, I was able to convince the social worker to return your son to you after the death of his adoptive parents. I assured her that AD Skinner and his god-parents would make sure that no harm would ever be done to William again."
Skinner interrupted her for an instant. "And that convinced her?"
"Well, that and the fact that William has his grand-mother nearby." She paused for a moment before she went on. "I guess, the fact that Deputy Director Kersh supported our story and verified your true motives for the adoption could also be mentioned as being influential."
Scully, whispering I-love-you's into her son's ear, gave her a warm thank you and an even warmer smile. Mulder, probably for the first time in his life, was not able to show any kind of reaction but pure joy. His body language was evidence enough for Monica, John and Skinner to be assured of his thankfulness.
Still on the couch, Monica whispered, "I guess, we should leave them alone right now," to her partner and boss.
But before they could rise, Scully raised her voice again. "Monica, John - who did you...?"
But before she could finish her sentence, the answer dawned on her at the sight of Monica's renewed smile. "Oh, I see." And she placed another kiss on William's head. "William, I guess you'll have to say good-bye to your god-parents now."
When Monica and John approached the door, Mulder gave them both a warm embrace before he let them go, still not being able to voice his gratitude. Monica waved a happy and funny good-bye at William, took John's hand into hers and moved her head in the direction of the door to indicate Skinner to leave with them. He didn't need another hint and was up, placing a kiss on Scully's cheek and another pad on Mulder's shoulder.
"Sweet dreams then."
And the three of them left with the image of a dancing Scully, singing to her baby boy in the arms of the man she loved. And the last words they heard kept ringing in their heads on their way home.
"Joy to the world, all the boys and girls, joy to the fishes in the big blue sea, joy to you and me!"
The End