Disclaimer: Not mine.
Spoilers: None or all. We'll see.
A/N: This is an alternate ending to my other story "The Perfect Fall Weekend." Highly recommended that you read that first (although you could just forget the ending of Per Manum and you will be caught up). This picks up at the end of chapter 7 of that story and pretty much goes AU from there. I never thought I would do that. SHRIEK! If you think they're out of character and they would never do this... well that's your opinion. This is the reason I don't write the show after all. This is just fluff. If you don't like "matched 'em and hatched 'em" fics, skip merrily away.
Summary: What if it did?
When she came through the door, she wasn't quite sure what she would say. In the back of their minds, they had both been expecting failure. It wasn't that they wanted failure, it was that they had never really succeeded at something they both wanted. She stopped at her door, half of her wanting to burst through it and pick up the phone and call him to come over with cake and pizza. The other half wanted to be by herself, and savor the small secret for a little while before cluing him in. That wasn't very fair though. She probably should have moved the appointment so he could be there.
As it happened, she didn't have to make a choice, because he was lying on her couch when she opened the door.
"Hey," he said groggily as she shut the door. "What time is it?"
"Just before six. Are you feeling okay? You look tired."
"Just sitting and thinking."
He looked up at her for the first time and tipped his head to the side.
"Scully?"
"Yes?"
"You're going to have weird cravings and you're going to beg me to rub your feet and you're going to gain some weight, aren't you?"
She nodded and giggled as he stood up from the couch and hugged her.
"Really? Are they sure?"
"Positive, Mulder. They did a blood test and everything. You're going to be a daddy."
He grinned and touched her stomach gently.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired. And I have to pee, but what else is new?"
He laughed and kissed her forehead.
"Go take care of that and then come back out here. I have something for you."
She nodded and was back in five minutes, cuddling up next to him on the couch. He handed her an envelope with the number two printed on it.
"What is it?"
"Open it."
She obeyed and found a piece of paper with a tiny dot on it.
"Mulder?"
"That's how big the baby is right now a little before three weeks. Just under two millimeters."
"It's so little."
"I know. But it'll be bigger and bigger every week and before you know it we'll be sending him or her off to kindergarten."
She chuckled and swiped at the tear that had formed in her eye.
"So what did the doctor say exactly? Are you healthy?"
"Yeah. She says the "weather is right for hatching a baby," whatever that means. I need to take prenatal vitamins, but I've already been doing that. She said she also wants me to take calcium supplements until my next visit."
"Did she do an ultrasound?"
"No, but we have one scheduled in a while. I didn't want you to miss it."
"Thanks. Did she say when to expect morning sickness?"
"As early as next week but she said not to worry about it too much until it happens."
He relaxed onto the couch, keeping her cocooned in his arms. He rubbed his hand gently over her stomach and sighed.
"There's a baby in there."
"Yes. There is."
They were quiet for a long time, both lost in their thoughts.
"Scully?"
"Yeah?"
"Should we tell your mom now?"
"Let's wait a little longer. I want to be sure."
"We're going to have to tell Skinner soon. He might put you on desk duty."
"That's okay. I thought about all that before I even asked you to be a part of this, Mulder. I'm ready. This baby is more important to me than my job."
"Ditto."
"So you're going to take it easy too?"
"It's going to be hard to be a father if I'm not around. Besides, we talked about this last night. We're both in, one hundred percent. And I know I can't do much now, but I can make up for it in diapers later."
"Diapers and throw up and you've got yourself a deal."
He laughed and kissed her forehead.
"I love you, Scully."
"I love you too."
The next few weeks passed with minimal excitement. Skinner was happy for them although a little surprised and slightly uncomfortable, and did put Scully on desk duty. She didn't mind.
Mulder gave her an envelope every week, documenting the size of their baby. "It's eight whole centimeters this week, Scully. That's huge!" She would just nod and run to the bathroom. Her morning sickness was fierce, but usually gone by 10 a.m. She slept a lot on the weekends and sometimes fell asleep at her desk. She was glad the fatigue was her main symptom and not the morning sickness. At least she could do something about fatigue.
She was also getting emotional. She cried over the littlest things, from sappy commercials, to not being able to find her shoes. Sometimes she cried thinking that the pregnancy would never be over and sometimes she cried out of fear of what her child would see in the world. Mulder comforted her through all of this. He knew just what to say to stop her tears, or deflect the angry words that were headed his way.
"Scully," Mulder began one night as they sat on the couch.
"Hmm?"
"You're starting to look pregnant."
"What?"
"You glow. And you have a tiny bump."
"I do?"
"Yeah. Just barely. But that could just be because I'm looking for it."
She giggled and their hands joined over her stomach.
"Are you ready for the appointment tomorrow?"
"Yep. You?"
"You know I am."
He had started holding a stethoscope up to her stomach about a week before, hoping he could hear a heartbeat. She just humored him. This appointment was mostly to check her health, as it was still a little early for an ultrasound. That would come around 10 weeks.
"So Scully, about this whole getting married thing..."
"Yeah?"
"Do you still want to do it, or was that hormones?"
She grinned and turned to face him.
"I still want to marry you. But I hope you realize that life as we know it is pretty much over."
"I don't mind. It's time we grew up, Scully."
She arched her eyebrow at him.
"Are you gonna wear a white dress?"
That comment sent her into a fit of giggles as she clapped her hand over her mouth.
"What? It's a relevant question!"
"I know. I just thought we were still doing the courthouse thing."
"Yeah, but what are you going to wear?"
"Mulder... I don't know. I didn't think that was a huge concern."
"Well when do you want to do it? Do you want your mom there?"
She sighed, her hand resting over her stomach.
"I don't know. I kind of feel like I want this to just be our secret, you know?"
"Scully, you can't keep a marriage and a baby secret for long."
"I know."
"Let's just decide later, okay?"
"Alright."
It was the day of judgment. Mulder squirmed in his seat, tried to adjust the lap belt, and fiddled with the radio. Scully sighed as she reached over and touched his hand, bringing it down to rest on the console between them.
"It's going to be okay."
"Your mom is going to kill me."
"She is not."
"She's going to think I convinced you to elope as step one in my elaborate plan to brainwash you and drive her out of your life."
"Mulder, your plan is too brilliant; she'll never figure it out."
He rolled his eyes and turned back to the road.
"She's going to know the minute she looks at you."
"No she's not."
"Your mom is psychic, Scully. She always knows what's going down."
"Do you think she'll really see this coming?"
"I don't know."
They were quiet.
"Mulder, she's not going to be mad at you. She's not going to be mad at me. I already tested the waters on the subject."
"How'd you do that?"
"I told her that two people at the bureau eloped. She said that there was no reason to deny them happiness. I even tried to bait her and ask her what she would have done if one of us would have eloped. She just laughed and said that it wouldn't matter if we were in love. And you and I are in love, so it doesn't matter does it?"
"No, it doesn't."
"She's going to be thrilled."
"For sure?"
"Mulder... she's been predicting this for about 5 years."
"Are you kidding?"
"I'm as serious as you are nervous. If she gets mad at anyone, it will be me anyway."
"What did you tell her when you said we were coming over?"
"I told her that we hadn't seen her in a while and we thought we'd spend the day with her."
"We."
"Yes, we. It's not a secret that you and I are basically attached at the hip."
"Now we've got the papers to prove it."
She giggled and squeezed his hand.
Maggie eyed her daughter for a moment before smiling.
"Dana, is there something going on I should know about?"
They had been inside her mother's house for less than 20 minutes.
"Well mom..." she started, looking to Mulder for a little help. He just shrugged at her. They hadn't exactly discussed how they were going to break the news to Maggie.
"There is something going on you should know about, and um... I want you to listen to all of it before you say anything. Okay?"
"Fair enough."
There was a long silence before Scully took a deep breath and began.
"Mom, I know you know about the tests that were done on me when I was taken. And I thought... or I was told that I would never be able to conceive. Without going into too much detail, that information wasn't entirely true. And, um... I think Mulder can finish the rest of the story."
He nodded and took her hand.
"We found out that with fertility treatments and an IVF procedure, Dana could be able to conceive. Of course, there were a lot of tests to be done and things of that sort, but what it comes down to... well, what I mean is... Dana is pregnant."
Maggie's jaw dropped but she didn't utter a word.
"And mom? Just so we're all on the same page here, Mulder is the father. And about two weeks ago, we got married."
"Now this wasn't just a marriage of convenience, Maggie. We're in love. We have been for a long time, even though we didn't want to admit it. And we know this is kind of sudden and out of character for us, but so is having a baby. And we're ready for the change and we're excited about it. And you can probably say something now."
She just stared at them for a long moment before standing up and leaving the room.
Scully sighed and turned to Mulder.
"So I guess she is going to be mad."
"Maybe you should go and talk to her."
She nodded and left the room, finding her mother in the kitchen.
"Mom?"
"Why didn't you tell me, Dana?"
"It was complicated, mom. We wanted to make sure that I could actually get pregnant before we told anyone. We didn't want to get your hopes up if it didn't work."
"But you told him."
"Well, yeah..." she muttered. "I kind of needed his help to have a baby with him, mom."
"I just thought as your mother I would be privy to the two biggest events in your life. Did you not want me there for a particular reason?"
"No. We had been talking about it for a while, and one day, we just went down to the courthouse and did it. We didn't leave you out to hurt you. It was just... it was something that we felt we needed to do together."
"Dana, it wasn't like you needed to be ashamed, like you got yourself into trouble or something. This was like, premeditated pregnancy. You could have let me know that you were going to try."
"Mom, does it matter how this baby or this marriage came to be? Does it really change your opinion on the situation?"
"How far along are you?"
"10 weeks."
"And never one word?"
"I'm sorry."
"You were here at Christmas. It would have been a perfect time to tell everyone, but you didn't say anything."
"I was only 6 weeks along. We hadn't even had an ultrasound yet. Maybe we didn't want to jinx it."
Maggie was quiet, leaning against the counter and biting her lip.
"Mom, I know you're mad, and I understand that. So we're going to go and let you get used to this. We have an appointment tomorrow. The doctor thinks I could be carrying twins, so we're having an ultrasound, and we would like you to be there. The appointment is at 3:30."
She left the room and found Mulder pacing the hallway.
"Hey, you look like an anxious father already."
"She still mad?"
"She's hurt. There's not much I can do about it now. I told her we were going to leave and let her process things."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Believe me, if mom and I have anything in common, it's our desire for space."
He kissed her softly and helped her slip into her coat.
He found her up at 2 a.m. She was standing in front of the stove, one hand on her hip.
"Scully? What are you doing?"
"I was hungry. I'm making a grilled cheese. Want half?"
"Sure."
He stood next to her, rubbing her back gently.
"Are you still upset?"
"Kind of. I wasn't expecting mom to call Bill and tell him."
"Yeah, that was a pleasant surprise."
"It's just makes me so mad that they can't even be happy about the baby. They just want to be mad at me for the way this happened. They act like I'm some rebellious teenager or something."
"Well you did get pregnant out of wedlock. You know how they are about that," he half teased.
"Yeah, but it's not like... I mean... it's not so much... well they know how it..."
"I like you flustered."
"This isn't funny, Mulder."
"I know it's not. But I assure you, in time, things will get better and once that baby-"
"Or babies."
"Or babies are here, they're going to fall in love and all of this will be forgotten. Alright?"
She nodded and he kissed her cheek.
"Charlie's going to be happy for you, we know that much."
"Yeah, he always takes my side."
"You weren't really hungry, were you?" he asked, kissing the top of her head.
"No."
"Then turn that off and come back to bed. We have stuff to do tomorrow."
"Oh yeah?" she asked, turning the burner off and putting the sandwich in the trash. "Like what?"
"Well, I thought that since we have the day off, it might be a good time to price some cribs and rocking chairs and changing tables."
"Really?"
"Yep. Is that alright?"
"I thought you would never ask," she answered, slipping into the bed. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, then rested his hand on her stomach.
"Scully?"
"Hmm?"
"What if it's twins?"
"Then we'll buy more diapers."
"Scully."
"Are you worried or something?"
"No. I just... I don't know much about babies, and I think if we had two, you'd be exhausted from trying to teach me stuff and trying to take care of them."
"Mulder, you'll be fine. You've already been reading a lot and once they or it gets here, some things will come naturally."
"How are you so relaxed about this?"
"I have to be. Being a parent is a big deal, but we'll figure it out and we'll do fine. Okay?"
"I guess if you're okay, I'm okay."
"Good."
He looked at her for a long moment before leaning down to kiss her.
"You know I love you like crazy, right?"
"Back at you."
A/N: So, it's up to you, dear readers. Continue? Boy? Girl? Twins? I kind of have an idea in mind, but I would like to know what everyone prefers. Suggestions please!