A/N Set post I want to believe and before the brand new comic book.
Everything that has happened in the last few years remembers him of something: they aren't in their prime any longer. Mostly, though, to keep him awake at night nowadays it's the sight of her, asleep in his bed (their bed). No aliens, no kidnapped or presumed dead sisters. No conspiracies. Just her.
Scully.
(Although, nowadays she is just Dana. Dr. Scully died a long time ago. After what happened in Virginia. Now she is Dr. Dana Blake. )
He doesn't regret her. Scully has been his safe harbor, his guiding light. Without her, time to be honest: he would have died at least twenty years before.
That's the matter, especially today, as it mark the 21st annyversay of their first meeting. Because every time he looks at Scully sleeping, he can't help but feeling that, by saving him, she damned herself.
It's not about the thing she saw while working on the X-Files. He doesn't think she regrets them- as every scientist, Scully has a particular curious mind. It's more about what she didn't get. Lost chances. Sailed ships.
Scully was…well, she is smart. Clever. She would have made an awesome leader within bureau, but she burned down that bridge by staying at side for better or worst. He knows that she may have never gotten to have William, but maybe, if it hadn't been for him, for his presence in her life… she could have been whatever she had always wanted to be, or could have been. A wife. A mother. A deputy director within the FBI.
Instead, here she is. Working in a small hospital, using a fake name, over forty years old, no children to speak of, and an husband who isn't really her husband because, technically, they don't exist.
(Did he mention he is a stay at home husband?)
She purrs in her sleep, content, and Fox falls at her side. He cuddles into her, falling fast asleep. He hopes she doesn't regret this, that she will never resent him for this life they build together. He knows he never will: he is too greedy for let it go of their love.
