It's after he has her in his arms for the second time, his cheek pressed into the top of her head, moving long strawberry curls between his fingers; that he returns to the things she said earlier.
What if he married someone else, had kids?
No one to have a baby with?
What would they do?
He pondered for a moment the ludicracy of it all.
Did she need to hear him say that he didn't want anyone else? She usually laughed when he said it, or grinned slyly turning her head away and telling him she knew that. Like he was questioning her intelligence. Was the last twenty years he'd spent at her side not proof of it?
And since when didn't she have anyone to have a baby with? They'd lived together for over a decade, they'd already had a baby together. Did she forget he was the one she had babies with?
SHE had left him. He was the one who had stayed in the same spot. He'd remained behind; still held up in their house sleeping on the sheets she'd bought them in the room they'd painted together in those first few months after they'd slowly inched back towards DC.
They should have stayed gone. He should have kept driving. They could have settled in any of the cities they'd temporarily called home. Santa Fe was nice. There was a town in Northern California called 'Rough and Ready.' He'd run that joke into the ground.
The best had been Ryan, Texas. Scully had loved that little town. People had lined up for visits with the big city doctor. They were still new to each other as a full fledged couple then. They'd been more publicly affectionate there. He'd kissed her in broad daylight in front of people they knew. He'd danced with her. He'd called her Dana. When Mel, a guy who lived a few doors down, asked him why they'd never had children he'd told him about Emily and William and how they'd lost both of them. Genetic abnormality. He'd swallowed a hard gulp of beer, feeling the horrible truth of those words, despite the misguidance. Then man had put his hand on his shoulder and told him he was sorry. He said he'd pray for his kids. His kids. It was one of the few times he had felt like a father. Scully had cried when he told her the story.
And here she was, pretending like he thought he could have kids with someone else.
What would they do? Hell, maybe they'd go back to Ryan, Texas. Or maybe he'd just convince her to come back to their rundown farmhouse. She could go back to the hospital. He could go back to writing his book. They could get a dog.
He pressed a kiss to her temple and shifted away.
"Mulder?" She whispered, with more fear then he would have liked.
"Still here." He breathed tugging his arm in to roll her body towards his chest.
"Mumm.." She burrowed into him.
"I'm still here." He felt her lips feather against his clavicle."Always here."