A Jewish Christmas?

Part 1

By Trycee

Time-Line: Season 4: After Paper Hearts and El Mundo Gria and Before: Leonard Betts, Never Again, and Momento Mori.

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files, it is owned by Chris Carter. This is written for Fun not profit.

**This is a different take on the Mulder goes to Scully's House for Christmas. This is Scully goes to Mulder's mother's house for Christmas Eve and then Mulder goes to Scully's mom's house for Christmas day, season 4.

Scully sat next to Mulder on his black leather couch, pouring over the files that were resting on her lap. More lay in front of her on the coffee table. She could hear Mulder sigh next to her but she refused to look up from her work. She knew it was boredom on Mulder's part and only boredom that made him sigh. A knock at his apartment door brought Scully out of her thoughts. Mulder threw down the papers he was battling to read in his hands and stood up, pulling out his wallet. "Its been more than 40 minutes, shouldn't it be free?", he said, flashing a beautiful smile her way.

"Mulder...this is Carl's Pizza Shack...I think the only thing you'll get free is indigestion."

He smirked and then pulled open the door. A young curly haired man peered in over Mulder's shoulder at Scully. "Ummm...", the guy said, looking her over.

He then focused on Mulder's face which was rigid as he glared at the young man. The pizza guy's eyes widen and he smiled apologetically. "$13.50."

Mulder handed him the cash and snatched the pizza from his hands still giving him a stern look. He slammed the door in his face and returned to the coffee table, pizza in hand. Scully waved Mulder's cell phone in his face. "Mulder...it's your mother."

He looked stunned. "My who?"

"Your mother," she whispered.

Mulder plopped down next to her and took the phone from her hands. He stared at the receiver for a moment and then placed it to his ear. "Mom?"

"Fox," Teena Mulder said. "Fox...I haven't heard from you in awhile..."

Mulder's face tightened. "I've been busy..."

"Fox...its almost Christmas..."

Mulder was silent. "Yeah...in a few days."

"Will I see you Fox?"

"Ah-mm...", Mulder said, looking directly into Scully's eyes. "It depends upon what Scully has planned."

"Oh!", Teena said with a trace of disappointment. "I didn't realize that you two were seeing each other."

Mulder glanced over to Scully to see if she'd heard any of his mother's conversation. She was engrossed in a file. "What did you have planned Mom?"

"Maybe just to see you on Christmas eve...or Christmas day? We really haven't spent the holidays together since you were a boy living at home Fox."

"I'll...ah...", he said, glancing again to Scully.

She heard every word but was pretending to care about the results of a blood sample taken at the scene of their last X-File. She noticed as well that he never corrected his mother about their relationship...That was interesting, she thought to herself.

"I'll have to discuss it with Scully...and I'll call you back."

"Alright Fox," Teena said in her proper sophisticate manner. "Call soon."

"I will...", he said, hanging up.

He sat there a moment and then turned back to Scully. "I know you heard what we were talking about."

She tossed the file onto the coffee table. "Mulder...why won't you go see your mom? I mean you only sit here on Christmas."

"That's not true, Scully," he said, pushing the files out of the way. "I go for a run...I watch Its a Wonderful Life and I pig out on Chinese Food."

"Mulder", she sighed an exasperated sigh.

"Well...what are you doing this year?", he said, jumping up and walking into his kitchen. He returned with napkins and two beers. "Are you going over to your mom's or spending it with your brothers out of state?"

"No," she said, shaking her head.

Mulder was surprised. "Scully...don't you spend Christmas with your family every year?"

"No, Mulder..." she lied. "Well, I'll see my mom...she actually asked me to invite you...again."

Mulder smiled shyly. "Its just that...", she began. "My dad died on Christmas day. Normally I can soldier on for awhile but having lost Missy and my dad...I'm not quite sure I want to celebrate it."

Mulder nodded his head as he placed a slice of pizza on a napkin, handing it to her and giving her a cold beer to wash it down with. "What were you going to do then?", Mulder asked curiously.

She looked at him and then turned away shyly. "I don't know...I didn't have plans...I guess I thought maybe you and I could do something together...and then show up later at my mom's..."

"Okay...we'll go to your mom's first and then to my mother's.", he said, taking a bite of the sloppy pizza.

"Mulder, she didn't invite me...something tells me that she wants you there...alone..."

"Scully, I can't be around my mother alone!", he said, popping the top on his beer bottle and downing a few gulps.

"Why not?", she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, we'll go to my mother's first and then your mother's last...where it'll be happier," he smiled.

"Mulder...what happens around the holiday's with your family...what do you do?"

"First of all, Scully...my mother is the only family I have left as you know...not counting Samantha. Secondly...my family never really celebrated the holidays..."

"Why is that, Mulder?", she said, finally taking a bite of her own pizza.

"Scully...", he began but looked into her deep blue eyes and then changed his mind. "Okay...my father was Jewish...but kids are recognized as Jewish typically through a Jewish mother.."

"Right, I know that."

"My mother is a WASP, Scully..."

"Old money..."

"Yeah, " he nodded. "Prim and Proper...as you know my mother to be. The story goes that she married my father against her parents wishes. They didn't outright disown her because my father worked for the state department...but they never came to visit us or cared to know us."

"That's terrible!", she gasped.

"From the time I could remember...I was raised Jewish...I went to temple just like 'real Jewish kids'...I went to Hebrew School after regular school...which Samantha and I hated...I even had a Bar Mitzvah. We celebrated Hanukah...", he said, with a far off look in his eyes.

"It was kind of like we were Jewish at Temple and then nothing at home...we never prayed or participated in Seder's or anything really...except Hanukah and to a small extent...we celebrated Christmas...a kind of Jewish Christmas...I guess. We had the tree...but there really wasn't any feeling behind it...we didn't have a big meal or swap gifts..I think maybe it was for show...a way for my mom to show off to all her friends."

Scully reached out and slid one tiny hand in his even though she couldn't grasp his entire hand, they were too large. But he smiled though at her attempt. "My parents weren't really involved with us, Scully. They kind of had a hands off approach in raising us. They were usually off with neighbor's or friends...doing whatever parents used to do back then."

He could see Scully's eyes dulled as his words seeped into her mind.

"So when Samantha was taken...my parents divorced and I went to live with my mom...that's when suddenly she decided to change everything about me...after all, she was Protestant and though she was never really religious, she suddenly had me baptized...had me attend Sunday School with kids who were raised their entire lives having never met a Jew, so I was the one that played the Jewish Towns people during Christmas plays or the one that sacrificed Jesus at Easter."

Scully's looked horrified. "Mulder...that's terrible."

"I stopped going and it caused a rip between us, there already was plenty of rips between us. I was left alone to live with her and I barely saw her most of the time...She had other business and I was mainly in her way. She only went to church for special occasions herself after awhile. But then Christmas would come..it was horrible. My parents would fight over who I'd spend the holidays with, neither really wanted me...I was their throw-away child...what they really wanted was Samantha," he said, taking another swig on his beer.

Scully's eyes began to well up but she pushed it down, looking at him with sorrowful eyes.

"It was hard for me going from one religious tradition my entire life to another and then to nothing...We stopped celebrating any holidays by the time I was 18...I went to Oxford...and honestly...I have never been back during the holidays with either of my parents...and well...now with my dad gone...I especially don't want to spend it with my mother Scully."

"You really should spend it with your Mom though, Mulder," she said, tightening her grip on his hands which lay on her lap. "You never know how many years you have with her left."

"Yeah but not alone, Scully...", he said, looking at her. "The thing is, Scully...my mother and I have no relationship. I don't know if he even was my father," he said under his breath.

Scully heard him and tightened her grip. "I'll go with you if you want..."

"I do...", he smiled. "I couldn't bare it alone...not with just the two of us. You'd need the police present if that were the case."

"I'm so sorry Mulder that this was your experience..."

"Scully...you had a loving family...mine was dysfunctional in ways I couldn't even explain," he said, reaching for another slice.

Scully's first piece sat on a napkin on the coffee table, cold and withered up. She pushed it away. "What would your mother like for Christmas, Mulder?"

He looked at her flabbergasted. "You're gonna give her a gift?"

"Of course," she said confused. "That's what you do Mulder...you bring a gift to the host."

Mulder laughed, shaking his head. "I'm sure whatever you give her, Scully...it won't be good enough. It's never good enough."

Scully looked dismayed for a moment and then looked back into Mulder's deep hazel eyes. "Will you shop with me, Mulder? We never have time to shop and we need a gift for my mom as well." She paused for a moment. "And should we exchange gifts?", she asked uncertain.

"We usually keep it under $20...well...since last year."

"Yeah the first year we didn't exchange anything...the second year...that was a tough year," she said, looking off, and then I think last year was the first year we did exchange gifts...but we set a $20 limit."

"Yeah...", he said, embarrassed.

She'd given him a nice sweater and he'd given her an old black and white horror movie. Scully couldn't hide her distaste for the movie as they watched it at his apartment on Christmas eve. Secretly though for Mulder, having her watch a movie with him was a gift to himself. They hardly ever saw each other outside of work as friends or spent any time together unless they were pouring over a report or one of them was gravely ill, so he had cherished that memory.

"We could do that, Scully. Hit the mall," he smiled. "Tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah," she smiled back, a rarity in itself. "Okay, back to paperwork..."

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