Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, they're Chris's and Fox's and 1013's – come on everyone, sing along, you know the words.
Summary: Bedtime at the Mulder house.
Time Period: Way past season 8
Spoilers: Not really, one line from Per Manum (unless that changes in the next three weeks)
Classification: MSR, lots o' fluff and humor
POV: Primarily Mulder's
Archive: Anywhere – just keep my name on it and let me know where it's headed.
Rating: PG
Bedtime Story
By Philemom
"Daddy, tell us the story, please," whined four year old Meg, already dragging her feet about going to bed.
"Not tonight, angel, it's late. How about Stellaluna?" her father asked, ushering her down the hallway towards the bedroom his girls shared.
"Pwease, Daddy," three year old Katy mimicked, forever following big sister.
"I said no, girls," their father insisted, battling the urge to clamp his hands over his eyes. He knew what came next, just as he knew he'd fall for it again. Like a bug drawn to a zapper, he looked down at both sets of blue eyes and sighed heavily. Sunk.
Damn her anyway for giving them her eyes.
"Okay, okay. Get yourselves dressed for bed and brush your teeth. I'll be back in a minute. I need to check on Mommy."
Their giggles proved to him that they knew they'd done it again. What the hell. He hadn't met a father yet that wasn't victimized daily by the wiles of a daughter on a mission.
His wife, lying on the couch balancing the TV remote on what would probably become their third daughter, took one look at his face and giggled herself.
"They got you again, didn't they?"
"Not a word, Dana. Not one word."
"Okay. Okay," she put a hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter, but it didn't work. "Big FBI man turned into jello by two little girls."
"I said can it, Scully." But the beaming smile he sent his wife took all the acid from his words. He sat on the sofa next to her, replacing the remote with his hand. "Any chance we'll even the odds out this time?"
She placed her hand on top of his. "Never give up on a miracle, Mulder."
Their eyes touched briefly, warmly, and Mulder moved in towards his wife.
"Daddy! We're ready!"
"Foiled again," Mulder muttered rising from the couch. Before he climbed the stairs, he turned one last time. "Do you need anything?"
"Nope. And don't worry, I'll stay right here."
"You better," Mulder warned, knowing damn well she'd waddle up the stairs to eavesdrop. He'd made up this story years ago, right after Katy was born. And it had been Meg's favorite ever since.
The first time she'd heard him tell it, she hadn't been able to stop giggling for the rest of the night. It didn't really bother him that she listened in, he just didn't want her in the room. She was with them all day, bedtime was his special time with his daughters.
When he reached the bedroom, both girls were in their beds, looking up at him innocently. Yeah, right, he thought. As innocent as three card Monte dealers.
"Okay," he settled into the rocking chair left over from their babyhood and began rocking.
"Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince –"
"Prince Spooky," Meg piped up.
"Scully!" Mulder yelled down the hall.
"What?" she yelled back innocently, her laughter evident even from a distance.
"Never mind," he muttered, shaking his head. His girls, all three of them, consistently kept him on his toes.
"Anyway, there was a handsome prince, who didn't have a name," Mulder directed his voice towards the stairs, "and he lived in the basement of a dark and dreary castle.
"His world had been a lonely one, a life filled with questions. Then one day a beautiful fairy walked into his room and knocked him off his feet. Together the prince and the fairy traveled many roads together, fighting aliens and mutants and things that go bump in the night. They didn't always agree on the battles, but the fought them together anyway. And through all of their travels, and all of their battles, they became one.
"But on a dark and foggy night, the prince was taken from the fairy. They were separated for many months, but the fairy kept looking for him, even as she sheltered a new fairy near her heart."
Meg giggled at this, just as she always did.
"The night the new fairy was born, the prince returned. He was tired and sick, but no one seemed to mind. They were just glad he was back. Determined to never be apart again, the prince made the fairy his princess in the eyes of the kingdom, with the baby fairy in his arms. He felt his world was complete, a far cry from the lonely one he had led before. And as time goes on, and more fairies come his way, he knows that he is still living happily ever after."
He rose from the rocker and walked over to the twin beds.
"Goodnight, Daddy," the girls said in unison.
"Goodnight, fairy Meg," he said kissing each forehead in turn. "And goodnight, fairy Katy." Then he shut the light out and left the door ajar.
He walked down the stairs towards his wife, marveling at how close the story's end came to real life. He was living happily ever after. Who'd have guessed?
"All done?" Scully asked innocently.
"As you damn well know," he said sarcastically, sitting at the far end of the couch.
"I still say it needs some gnomes or wizards or something."
"What? Like the Lone Gnomes?"
Scully laughed so hard, she nearly came off the couch. "Watch it, Fox, you may just send me into labor."
"We are blessed, aren't we Dana?" Mulder asked turning serious.
She looked at him for a long time before answering. Rising to a sitting position, she reached for his hand. "I think we are, Fox. I think all the things we endured for eight years was our purgatory. Mostly of our own making, sure, but things we had to go through before we could take the next step. Before we could appreciate it or accept it."
An hour later, Mulder sat staring at the TV, only vaguely registering what he was watching. Scully was right. They'd been through hell together in the beginning. It was only fitting that they have some semblance of normalcy now.
Absently, he began to rub the arches of Dana's tiny feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the TV remote jumping again. His very diminutive wife didn't have a lot of room for a growing Mulder. Consequently, the baby became territorial about her space. And it never failed to amuse him and the girls when the baby would kick at it and make it jump.
"Fox?" Scully sighed in her semi-sleeping state.
"Hmm?"
"You evened the odds," she mumbled.
"Huh?" he asked, perplexed.
"This one's a boy, Fox," Dana clarified before her head slumped in deep sleep.
Fox Mulder placed his hand on their child, looked heavenward, and said,
"Yes!"
-end-
Author's note: The part at the end is from my own pregnancies. Both of my kids would kick at anything placed on my stomach – my oldest was the strongest, though. He could kick the remote off!