Title: The Rainbow at the End

Author: Aislinn Carter

Summary: Our favorite couple finally get it all. Let's see what life would have looked like without the debacle that was season 9.

Category: Mulder/Scully married, family.

Spoilers: Arcadia, The Host, everything up to Existence. Season 9 never happened here.

Disclaimers: Not mine, but if they were, and I cannot stress this point enough, season 9 would NOT have happened! But they are not mine, so it did. They belong to Chris Carter and all his people, 1013, Fox, etc. etc. I have no money. Mastercard has all my money.

Feedback: Always welcome, in fact requested, at Wherever, just let me know.

Dana looked around at the apartment they had shared together this past year and a half. Empty now, but that was all right. They would make new memories; they always had. There were a lot of good memories here, but there were also a fountain of bad ones, bad enough that Dana had no problem packing up the good memories and bringing them to the new house. She had often thought about leaving this place, but after William was born, it had slipped to the wayside, like so many other things. William was really all that mattered.

She winced as she heard the movers thumping around in the master bedroom. Her grandmother's antique lamp was in one of those boxes, and if they broke it...

The door opened, and Mulder came in, his face cherry red, snowflakes falling off of his hat and coat. William was snuggled protectively in his arms, bundled up in his little blue snowsuit and red boots. He giggled when he saw his mother, and tugged to be let down.

Mulder set their son on the floor, and he pulled his hat off, shaking his hair and brushing the remaining flakes out. "Never seen this place look so empty,"

"I was just thinking that."

He came to stand beside her, and they watched as William ran around the bare room in circles, finally collapsing into a dizzy, giggling heap on the wood floor. Mulder laughed, and turned to look at his wife.

"Let's hope the next one has a little less energy."

Dana grinned and patted her stomach, only slightly swollen at five months. "She's smaller than William was. She doesn't kick as much, either. Let's hope she got all of the quietness that seemed to pass William by."

The new baby was actually the reason they were moving. As soon as Dana figured out she was pregnant, they rushed to have a battery of tests run on her. One miracle she could pass off, but two? But test after test revealed the present of a perfectly healthy, perfectly normal female fetus. Further tests revealed two healthy, normal, full ovaries. Not as full as they should have been, but with several thousand eggs each, definitely fertile. They were at a loss to explain it, and they came up with several theories. One was that they had been lied to, and that Dana had never actually been barren at all. Another was that Cancerman had somehow had Dana's ovum returned to her. A likely time for it to have been done was he had taken Dana on his little road trip. That had been maybe two months before she discovered her pregnancy with William. And every test on William had confirmed he was healthy, normal, and very much Dana Scully and Fox Mulder's child.

No matter how it happened, it had happened, and they were an expanding family.

The house they were moving into had five bedrooms, and they were already discussing plans for another baby or two, provided this next one didn't take after her brother. William really was a handful.

Since his birth, their lives had been even more interesting than when they were on the X-Files. Of course, neither of them had gone back to that basement office; Monica and John were more than adequate for that. Instead, Dana had spent four months on maternity leave, then gone back to work part time at Quantico, leaving Mulder at home with William.

Ever since his sister's dissapearance had been solved, and he had been abducted and killed, his heart had definitely not been in the X-Files. Instead, his heart was now in Dana and William. Mulder had inherited quite a lot of money from both of his parents, so there was no need for him to work, or for Dana to work any more than part-time.

He asked Dana to marry him when William was two months old, and at first she had refused. "I don't want a baby to be your reason for marrying me, Mulder. We're fine just the way we are."

But they weren't, and he knew it. Despite the fact that her mother kept hinting at it, and that her brothers had shot him ample murderous loks at the christening, and that former co-workers at the F.B.I. gave him a hard time about making her an honest woman whenever he was down there, he knew that it was what he wanted. Even without William, they would have found a way to be married. William was just the catalyst; he wasn't the cause. Mulder wanted to marry her.. He wanted it very, very badly.

So he spent the next couple of months doing everything in his power to make her believe him. She finally gave in, when William was six months old, after a particularly embarasing stunt he pulled when she was in a meeting at the Hoover building. He'd had a singing quartet break into the meeting, singing a medley of love songs, each carrying a bouquet of roses. The final touch was when he strode into the room dressed in a tux, oblivious to the shocked looks on the faces of those around the conference table, and dropped to one knee in front of her with a black velvet box. In that box was the antique diamond ring that had been his grandmother's engagement ring, the one his mother had worn on a chain around her neck for most of her life. He poised on his knee, waited for the quartet to finish, then, looking into Dana's stunned face, he grinned and said. "Do you believe me now?"

Mortified as she had been, her face redder than her hair, she had gracefully taken the ring from him, slipped it on her hand, and said, very primly, "Yes, I think I've been properly convinced."

So they were married six months later, shortly after William's first birthday. It was actually a rather extravagant affair, with the ceremony at Dana's church, white dress and huge bridal party and all, and the reception at the D.C. Botanical Gardens. After that, Mulder noticed Dana becoming increasingly unhappy with being a working mom, so after talking about it at length, they both decided that Dana would taken an indefinite leave of absence from the bureau, and Mulder would go put his psychology degree to use. He started teaching at the University of Maryland, with a light courseload at first, but he soon became immersed in his work, enough that he started to write a book about it, basing it on his work at the Bureau. Most days, he would be home by four or five, dinner would be ready, the baby would be playing contentedly, and Dana would be working on her own interests. She had been writing for the medical journals the past few months, and she found she enjoyed it. She, too, was putting her fancy degree to work.

They had been married two months when she started to get sick. At first, she thought it was the flu, but it didn't go away. Mulder, naturally, immediately became panicked, thinking it was cancer again, but she knew better by now. A drugstore kit confirmed it, and then they were off rushing to get tests done. When everything came back completely fine, they celebrated. And started house hunting.

So here they were, six months married, ten years together, a year and a half old son, and another on the way. Mulder's work at the University was becoming more and more well known, and Dana was totally and completely content to be a stay at home mom. They didn't know if any more children would follow this one, but no matter what, she wasn't setting foot back into a workplace again until the youngest was at least six years old.

Their lives were so normal now, compared to what they had been. As soon as they found out about the baby, Mulder had gone out and purchased a huge Dodge Caravan, with side airbags and a built in baby seat, as well as a DVD player so William could watch Barney on the road. The new house was huge, smack in the middle of Maryland suburbia, with a fenced in pool and a front and back garden, and a breakfast nook. Mulder had joked about the nook, saying it sounded positively Martha Stewart-esque, and how ever would they live up to the image of the nook?

It was hard to believe they had ever fought flukemen and battled with a government conspiracy.

Now they were just Mr. And Mrs. Mulder, and family.

And they couldn't imagine being anything else.

It was late by the time they finally got everything unpacked and settled. Of course, there were still boxes of various items, but they could be sorted out over the week. The furniture was arranged, the baby was put to bed in his new room, and Mulder had thoughtfully found the tea kettle and put the water on to boil.

Dana was slouched on the couch when he came in, exhausted, and accepted the mug gratefully. He sat next to her with his own mug, and they sipped in silence for a few minutes.

"You know," she said, after a few minutes. "I really like this place."

He grinned. "Admit it, Scully. You just want to play house."

Dana laughed. "Should I get in the kitchen and make you a sandwich?"

"Barefoot and pregnant, that's how I like my women."

She swatted him with free hand. "Pig."

"Yeah, but you love me anyway."

"You're lucky I do."

He took her hand. "I know." He said, completely serious.

She gazed into his eyes. "I'm lucky, too." she said softly.

"We both are." He conceded.

"What do you think she'll look like?"

"Hopefully like you."

"Nah. We already have one kid who looks like me."

"He has my eyes."

"My hair, my mouth, my nose, thank God."

Mulder gasped "I take offense!"

Dana giggled. "Point being, I wouldn't mind if she looks like you. She could have my eyes, but your hair and mouth."

"And nose?"

"Bite your tongue."

Mulder smirked. "Samantha Melissa. I don't know, with a name like that, she sounds like trouble already."

"As long as she doesn't start meditating with crystals, I'm happy."

"I can't wait to meet her."

"Me neither."

They were both silent for a moment. Then Mulder spoke up. "Do you ever regret-"

"Never."

"But what about-"

"Nope."

"Yeah, but-"

She reached over and placed a finger on his mouth. "No William, no Samantha Melissa. No you. So, no regrets."

He took her hand from his mouth and kissed her palm. "I love you, Dana Katherine Mulder."

"And I love you, Fox William Mulder."

"What did I tell you about calling me Fox?"

And when she was born, Samantha Melissa did have dark hair, and blue eyes, and her father's mouth. But she didn't have his nose. And she wasn't the youngest. Neither was Margaret Christina, two years later. But Walter Charles was, a year after her.

It was a long time before Dana went back to work, and when she did, it was at St. Agnes' Hospital, and only while the kids were at school. But until then, the Mulder's definitely had their hands full. And they had never been happier.