Title: A Sleepy Little Town: Memory House
Author: Neoxphile
Spoilers/Timeframe: post-IWTB
Disclaimer: The characters you recognize were created by Chris Carter. The rest are mine. Mine!
Series: A Sleepy Little Town
I. Staged Duplicity
II. Recovering Gemini
III. Christmas in (Haven) Maine written with Faerax
an X-Files/Haven Crossover
IV. A Sleepy Little Town: Memory House
you're reading it now =)
Summary: Set eleven months after "Christmas in (Haven) Maine", Mulder and Scully moved their family to Ballyguest, a small community in New England. To their dismay it soon becomes clear that Ballyguest isn't the sleepy little town they were hoping for. Their first clue? A local inn with a strange reputation.
Ballyguest, New Hampshire
November 24th, 2009
Bright late autumn sunlight streamed in through the windows, making the kitchen seem even emptier than it currently was. At the moment, the only things in the kitchen were me and a stack of boxes. I was in the middle lifting the flaps to one of the boxes when a gruff voice asked me where I wanted the hutch put.
I pointed to the far wall of the kitchen. "There would be great, thank you."
The men moving the awkward piece of furniture seemed too out of breath to use actual words to acknowledge what I said, and I reminded myself to look in the refrigerator to see if the sodas we had put in their earlier in the day were cold yet. Both men looked like they could use a nice cool drink after moving that monstrosity. If it wouldn't have broken my mother's heart, I would have left the hutch behind; it had belonged to some female relative far back in the Scully line, and somehow I was stuck with the damn thing.
Mulder walked into the room, and paused to look at me. "Are you sure you want to do all the kitchen unpacking yourself?"
"I'm sure." I flicked a flap of the box with one finger. "Call it putting my nesting instinct to good use," I suggested. "And it's not as though we're going to have a lot of time to unpack when the baby gets here."
He looked down at my belly. My doctor said that we had a few weeks before the baby arrived, but I felt that she and I were both getting impatient at that point. "Promise you won't over do it, then," Mulder said, trying to adopt a stern tone. He failed miserably because the good humor never left his eyes.
"I promise," I said, smiling up at him. When the baby kicked, I let my hand skim over my belly. It had been over ten months since we'd gotten home from our nightmarish Christmas vacation, but what we'd found on our doorstep that night made this baby possible: a container of my stolen ova carefully preserved in liquid nitrogen.
Once we'd had the ova examined to determine their viability, it hadn't taken Mulder and I very long to decide that we'd been given a gift that ought to be used. One time when I found myself fretting about whether or not another baby at our age was wise considering all the risks associated with late motherhood, Mulder had started laughing. Even though I glared at him, he hadn't stopped. Eventually I got him to tell me what was so funny, and he pointed out that the ova were from when I was more than a decade younger, so the increased risks would mostly be to my health.
When I related this to my OB, he smiled and told me that Mulder was right. If I'd been a woman seeking to get pregnant with donor eggs, he'd have no problem helping me since I was in good shape, and this way I'd basically be my own donor.
I got pregnant on the first try, and here we were, anxiously waiting to meet the little girl who would complete our family. I don't know who was more excited about the baby, me and Mulder, or William and Joey. They'd gotten even more excited when they found out that the baby was a girl, which Mulder found funny. I didn't, though. I could understand the appeal of wanting a brother and a sister. I just hoped that the baby wouldn't, since we weren't up to adding another girl to the family later.
If I hadn't gotten pregnant, we probably would have moved in June like we'd originally planned before we made our December 26th doorstep discovery, but preparing for a baby has a way of disrupting one's plans. Plan B, to move before the school year started, also fell through because of delays with closing on the house, so here we were moving just days before Thanksgiving.
Thank God we'd be driving to Bill and Tara's for the holiday, because it seemed impossible to believe I could manage to both unpack and cook an elaborate dinner. We'd have Christmas here, partly to spare us traveling with a newborn, and partly because our taking a turn as hosts was coming due.
"Your mom took the boys to the park. Do you mind if I go out for a little while?" Mulder asked, touching my arm to break me of wool-gathering.
That explained why the house was so quiet. Mom had come up more to help keep the boys occupied and to see the sights than to help unpack. "Go ahead," I said. "Where are you going anyway?"
"Staples. I thought I'd stock up on office supplies for my office."
Mulder's office. Now there was something that might not have been the best solution... Considering my success with treating Sandhoff Disease, I'd been courted by a new state-of-the-art medical research facility nearby and would be taking a position there when the baby was three months old, but Mulder wasn't going to get a new job.
Instead, he was going to work on that book that had been taking up residence in his brain practically since the day I met him, and look after the baby. I had my doubts about whether or not he was cut out to be a stay-at-home dad, but I kept them to myself. If worse came to worse, I could suggest that we hire a mother's, or perhaps I should phrase that as father's, helper a few hours a day so he could actually get something done...
"Scully?" I realized that I'd been spacing out again, and shook my head before smiling at him. "Do you need anything? There's a grocery store right next to Staples."
I listened for a moment, and thought about the men dragging in furniture. "Really cold soda. In cans," I suggested, waving my hands towards the sound of something very large going into the living room. "They've been working hard."
"Sure. I'll ask them what kind they want on my way out."
"Great. Oh, could you pick up some ziplock bags and bowls with covers? We should bring them with us to Bill so they don't have to give us theirs, since you know we won't escape without leftovers," I said, going back to sorting through the box of kitchen tools.
"No problem. See you soon."
Though I wouldn't admit it, I was a little jealous. He already knew where to go shopping, but I hadn't really had time to explore our new town yet. As if to remind me why, the baby gave me a vicious kick.
I knew, I thought as I rubbed my belly, there would be plenty of time to explore later. It was just that though I'd insisted that I'd wanted to unpack the kitchen alone, I hated to be cooped up doing it.
Eventually I got bored of opening boxes and went outside when I heard my sons' voices. Mom must have come back with them.
"Boys, come over here out of the way," Mom called to William and Joey when they got too close to the movers. They ran to her. "Why don't you go play in the backyard?" she suggested. She shot me a look that asked 'how do you keep up with them?' and I shrugged. I stared at the kids, wondering if they were warm enough in their sweaters, but they seemed comfortable enough. Their cheeks were pink, though.
"Yeah, we can play with our treehouse," William said. "Finally." The fact that their treehouse had gone with some of our less used stuff well before we did was a bone of contention between the four of us. Let's just say that eight-year-olds are not big on accepting that some things need to be done for the sake of practicality.
"Okay, let's do that," Joey replied, his red hair bouncing as he followed his dark-haired brother around the house. "But first let's get our camera so we can send pictures to Christian and Olivia."
"I want to take some of the pictures," William told him as they both headed back to the house for the camera.
"Duh."
It warmed my heart a little to hear that they planned to send pictures to their friends. When I was little, we moved a lot, and it was hard to keep in touch with people back when letters and long-distance phone calls were the only options for maintaining contact after a move. At least my kids could e-mail the people they left behind – not that they'd left Olivia behind, she's simply gone back to her mother after our disastrous vacation before Christmas left her without a father.
"Hey," Mulder said, breaking into my thoughts as he came behind me to wrap the arm not holding Staples and grocery bags around me. I smiled, not realizing until then that he'd returned too. "You want to send some pictures to anyone? Maybe the nuns at the hospital?"
"Right." I smirked at him. The biggest reason we'd moved was because I couldn't stand working at a catholic hospital any longer. The nuns hadn't been the problem, but it wasn't as though I'd been especially close to any of them. "No, Mulder. I don't think I'll be sending the nuns any photos."
"That's probably for the best. You wouldn't want them showing up to pray for us, or anything."
I rolled my eyes. "It's not like leaving the hospital got me excommunicated."
"Maybe not officially. We were unofficially excommunicated from the FBI," he said pointedly.
I decided that it wasn't worth the effort to explain that being ousted from the church and from the FBI were hardly on the same level. He was probably just toying with me. "You know, I might send some pictures after all."
"To who?"
I guess he expected me to say my family because his eyes widened when I said, "To Audrey."
"And how are our friends in Maine, anyway?"
"Not too bad. They're all still in Haven, and you know what that entails."
"As long as no one gets eaten, it's a good week in Haven," he said, deadpan.
"Something like that. Audrey thrives on the weird cases they keep getting, so she's pretty happy. Duke for some inexplicable reason mostly e-mails me videos of his cat, Morgan. And I more hear about Nathan from Audrey than from him personally, but they're all doing fine."
"Do you ever wonder why they stay there? There are plenty of perfectly average little towns all over the place up here, and they're…there."
"Nathan and Duke were born there, and Audrey's still there looking for answers. It's not that complicated, Mulder. I don't think anyone's holding them prisoner."
"You never know," he said cryptically before hefting his bags and heading for the house.
I shook my head as I watched him go. Our northern friends had been trapped with us on that island, but there was no reason they couldn't come and go now. Unless he meant it metaphorically...
"Dad! Come help us with the settings on our camera!" William called, and Mulder shrugged before jogging around to the back yard.
I watched Mulder help the boys with the camera, all three of their heads bent to examine in. My mother was right, it was moments like this that you caught people being themselves most thoroughly.
"Mrs. Mulder?" a female voice asked behind me, startling me a little bit. For a moment I looked around for Teena before realizing I was the one being addressed. I turned to see a woman approximately my mother's age giving me an uncertain smile. "It is Mrs. Mulder, isn't it? The mailbox... "
"Actually, my husband is Mulder. I kept my maiden name when we married. It made things easier professionally," I explained.
"Oh, I see." Her lips pursed in a way that suggested that she might understand, but not approve.
I felt like telling her that the boys both had Mulder's last name, but that seemed rather defensive, so I didn't.
The neighbor was more interested in other things, anyway. "It mustn't be long now," she said, glancing knowingly at my bulging middle.
"Not too long," I agreed. "A handful of weeks."
"I'm glad you're getting moved in before your new arrival gets here. Are your older children twins?" she asked, looking towards where William and Joey were snapping photos. Mulder had stopped to talk with my mother about something she was pointing at.
"Yes." Sure, why not. "They turned eight in May."
"They must be excited to be having a little brother or sister," she said before shaking her head with a rueful smile. "Where are my manners? I'm Judith Sharp. I live across the street."
"Dana Scully."
"Your family is lovely. Do you mind me asking what brings you to Ballyguest?"
I shrugged. "I'm going to be working at the nearby medical research center."
"Oh, you're a doctor. It's a nice place. The son of one of the women in my book club works there." Judith smiled at me, finally looking a bit less like she disapproved of me. "Where did you live before?"
"Virginia," I replied, not really caring to list everywhere I've lived. "Most recently."
"Virginia. Well, if you need any help getting ready for winter in a few weeks, just let me know."
I almost cringed at the thought of it snowing in a matter of weeks. "Actually, my husband is originally from Massachusetts, so we should be fine."
"That's good to hear. Winters up here can be overwhelming for novices. All that snow..."
And ice storms, I added silently. "My husband might hit you up for shovel recommendations, but we more or less know what we're in for."
"Mom! Do you know where more batteries are? Dad and Grandma don't," Joey called. I looked over my shoulder and saw him and William giving their camera a mournful look.
"I won't keep you, dear," Judith said. "Welcome to the neighborhood."
"Thank you," I said distracted, mind already on trying to locate more batteries.
"You're welcome." She pointed at a gray house across the street. "That's me, over there."
"Right. Nice to meet you."
As soon as she stepped away, I headed towards the house.
The Next Day
Mulder looked grumpy when he came back home after registering the kids at school. They wouldn't start until Monday, but the half-day gave us time to get them registered instead of rushing through it their first day of classes.
"So...how did it go?"
"Well, registering William was a snap, but Joey..." he trailed off with a sigh, "I got the third degree about his records."
"Because of the name change?" I asked.
Once we got custody of Joey, we had his name legally changed to Joseph William Mulder, rather than the "William Joseph Van de Kamp" that appeared on his adoption papers and his boarding school records. His new legal middle name was his choice. It tickled him to reverse the order of his names rather than to pick a new middle one, and this was before he and his brother even liked each other.
"Because of the name change," Mulder agreed. "I wish the new school didn't care about kindergarten records-" The boys' school in Carter hadn't, "-because it would have made things a hell of a lot easier. Their biggest concern was how we ended up with two boys once legally named William."
"What did you tell them?" I asked, curious about what he'd said.
I was certain that he hadn't told the truth, which was that I'd lied about Joey's name when I'd placed him up for adoption. He wouldn't have been back in less than an hour if that whole story - about how we hadn't known that Joey was ours when I decided to let people think he was William until I decided that he'd be safer with another family after Jeffery Spender warned me that people would be looking for him - had come out.
"I said that it was a coincidence and that we'd had no say over what the people who had adopted him named him, but that he'd gone by Joey since infancy anyway, so we'd legally changed it 'back' when we regained custody of him."
"And?"
"And there were probably a billion questions about why we'd given one twin up for adoption but not the other, but the principal held his tongue."
"You really can't blame people for being curious."
"Sure I can," Mulder said with a glower. "If not for the name discrepancies, no one would ever have to know about the adoption at all."
"You don't think Joey would ever mention it?"
"Well, maybe."
I scowled at him, too. It would be nice to wave a magic wand and rewrite the past, but
As much as we all loved each other now, we couldn't change what had come before. Joey had been old enough to remember when he'd come back to us. It wasn't fair to expect him to keep silent about five years of his short life.
Reading my mind, he waved a hand about while saying, "I know, I know, but I wish..."
I reached up and rested a hand on his shoulder. "And you always will. We both will."
"You're right," he agreed, kissing me on the forehead.
A Week Later
"You've got a phone call." Mulder stuck his head into the bedroom one afternoon while I was watching TV from the comfort of our bed.
Our bed, with its memory foam topper, and a feather topper over that was the only comfortable place left in the entire house. Unfortunately, with all that squishiness on the bed, I needed help getting out of it.
He seemed to realize that because he came over to give me a hand.
Not long now, I reminded myself for the sixth time that day, and then I'll have my body back.
"Who is it?" I asked, taking the phone from him. He only shook his head and smiled before backing out of the room.
I stared at the phone for a moment before putting it to my ear. "Hello?"
"Hello, um, Dana," a gruff voice replied.
"Sir?" I asked, not bothering to hide my surprise.
"You don't need to call me that," Skinner muttered before speaking up. "I was calling to see how you and Mulder are liking your new home."
"So far it's great. I haven't had much of a chance to explore yet…well, you know. But the kids are happy with their new school, and Mulder seems to like it here too," I said, wondering if I should send him a Christmas card. We kept in touch, sort of, but he wasn't generally the type to simply call someone up out of the blue to chat so I was a bit thrown.
"Good to hear."
"Thanks?" I immediately regretted letting that sound like a question. Pressing on, I asked, "And how are you, um, Walter?"
"I'm good." He did sound suspiciously chipper. "Actually, I'm seeing someone new, and she's trying to talk me into a New England vacation for Valentine's day-" I missed the next several words because my brain was still trying to process the fact that he'd just told me a detail about his love life. "-promised I'd ask for suggestions from Mulder since he'd grown up there."
"Oh," I said weakly. "What did he say?" Not Maine, not Maine…
"He said we should check out Vermont. Something about Bethany being quite nice, horrible monster he investigated not-withstanding. I told him Janice and I would consider Vermont, but not a town where an X-Files happened." Skinner cleared his throat. "She's an open-minded person, but there are limits."
"Of course. I'm sure that no one Violent Crimes takes a honeymoon tour of towns where they caught criminals either."
"Uh, it wouldn't be a honeymoon vacation-" Skinner said uncomfortably.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. Just that people don't revisit places like that," I said in what I hoped was a soothing tone.
"Yes, right. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're all getting along well in the new place."
"Thanks, and good luck with, um, everything."
"Right. Thank you."
Mulder was smirking when he returned a short time later.
"What was that?" I asked, eyes still wide with surprise.
"An X-File?" he suggested. He ducked when I threw a pillow at him.
"No more X-Files, remember?"
"How could I forget?" Mulder put the pillow back.
"You're not having second thoughts are you?" I asked, suddenly feeling uneasy.
"Of course not. I just can't think of another reason Walter Skinner called to ask me for vacation advice."
"As mysteries go, this is one for the books."
"Sing it, sister."
William came into the room a minute later. "Dad, you said you were gonna take us shopping for skates after you talked to your old boss guy. Are you done yet?"
"Yes. I'll be right there."
"Okay."
As soon as William left, Mulder turned to me with a strange gleam in his eye. "Do you think Skinner would literally die if I got the kids to call him Uncle Walt from now on?"
"I think you're making more of a case for homicide than a heart attack."
"Yeah, you're probably right. It would be pretty funny, though." He bent down to kiss my cheek. "Do you need anything while I'm out?"
I gave him my most winsome smile. "Cheesecake?"
"Okay, whatever you want."
"In that case, make sure it's New York style."
He groaned in a good-natured way before heading out, taking the boys and their noise with him. I wasn't lonely, though. The baby kicked now and then as I snuggled back on the bed, reminding me that she'd be there soon too.
