Just before William's second birthday.

'Mommy,' the word came out verbally.

Finally, Scully rolled her eyes; I've managed to convince him to speak like a normal child.

Mentally, William's frustration entered her mind. He hated talking like other children when telepathy got his message across much more easily. He'd been communicating with his parents this way since his birth. It had taken his mother until the day of his aborted adoption to believe him capable of the feat. His father always believed and always would.

'I want a baby sister,' he pathed, unable to articulate his idea.

Scully's thought centred on Emily, and her death. She couldn't stop the pervasive sadness engulfing her. Attempting to shield her young son from the depth of her emotions, Scully didn't entirely succeed. Mulder and William could hide behind their mental defence, both better at this form of communication than Scully. Scully's boys could read her like a book, even when she attempted to close the cover.

I have to get better at mentally hiding my emotions from the pair of them, Scully promised.

'No, not like that,' William ignored his mother's feelings after poking around in her mind. While he might be considered an extremely talented child, at almost two he displayed the emotional maturity of his age. No mater how they tried, William continued to read other people minds without permission.

'Manners,' Scully scolded in a decisive verbal and mental tone.

'I want a real sister,' he demanded.

'Emily was your real sister,' Scully spoke a little more sharply than she should. 'You both share my DNA.'

'No, I don't want a sister that's created,' William continued, his mental assault with determination. The image of a test tube replaced by a very pregnant Scully, 'I need one you and daddy make.'

'William,' Scully sighed wirily, wondering how she explained all that had happened to her while chasing down the X-Files. Closing her eyes, Scully pictured a viable ova and sperm joining, implanting, and growing into a child. Picturing herself and Mulder, sadden when this imaged fail for them, she knew William finally understood. Yet she had to say the words, 'I can't have any more children. As much as I might want to give you a sister or a brother, it's just not possible.'

'I can help you and daddy,' he offered with the optimism only a child could demonstrate.

'It's not that simple, sweetheart,' Scully played down her hurt and sadness at the glimmer of a life she might have had.

'Yes, it is,' William insisted. Laying his hands on her belly, he looked up into his mothers blue eyes, so much like his own. They stood like that, immobile, for several seconds, before William sent his mental image. 'Now you can.'

Scully felt the change low in her abdomen. Something undefinable, undeniable occurred. She felt a stretching, growing, but strangely no pain. The one thing Scully knew, her fertility had been returned.

'I know Daddy wants at least one more baby,' Williams glee couldn't be contained, 'but I want more than that.'

'Mulder,' she sent several rapid pictures telepathically, 'your son says you want another child.'

Mulder, in the middle of delivering a profile before a room full of FBI agents, paused between words as her presence entered his mind. Anyone watching him thought he searched for a particular phrase to explain his synopsis. Except a strange little smile which crossed his features, making the agents in the room wonder at the content of his thoughts.

'Are you OK, Mulder,' the task force leader asked at the end of his presentation. While the man had once been FBI, and a dam good agent in his time, the now civilian consultant seem happier and more content since leaving the Bureau.

Looking down at his cell, pretending Scully had messaged him, he said, 'If that's all you need me for, I'd like to wrap this case up,' Mulder went over the images Scully sent. 'My wife's decided we want another baby.'