Choices at Christmas

Part 2

by

Trycee

Time-Line: Alternative Universe, Season 7, Christmas Eve: Scully Residence

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files. I write this for fun, not profit.

**Written for the Nursery Files- "First Christmas With You"-Challenge

She turned towards her mother, she could see the worry lines creased in her forehead. "He's sleeping. His pain meds finally kicked in."

"Are you sure he should be left alone?", Maggie said, anxiously.

"I'm sure," Scully nodded. "Besides, we have a whole bunch of kids expecting cookies at St. Matthew's."

"Yes, it's a home-coming tonight for Father McCue after serving at St. John's in Alexandria," Maggie said.

"I wish I would've gone more," she said, regretfully. "He kept asking me to come back and I did as much as I could but sometimes my work would get in the way and other times..."

"You were too tired for Mass?", Maggie said, raising her eyebrows.

"No," Scully said, as she worked to remove the last of the cookie trays from the oven. "I would frequent St. Mary's closer to home. Alexandria is where Mulder lives but he's never there because he spends all his time at my...," she stopped mid-sentenced as the blood rushed to her cheeks coloring her neck and entire face matching her hair. She turned around to face her mother.

Maggie shifted from one foot to other, clearly uncomfortable by the slip though she wasn't surprised but she did her best to try and bite back her smile. "You're grown! I'll pretend I didn't hear that!"

"Good!", Scully said with wide eyes. "I'll pretend I didn't say anything," she said, defensively.

"Good!", Maggie said. "Let's just get this kitchen cleaned up!"

"Alright!," Scully said, turning her back from her mother and closing her eyes, inwardly cursing herself.

Jill and Tara walked in the front door and Scully could hear the joyful screams of her nephews as their mother's greeted them. She was relieved that they had returned.

"Hey, Dana, I hope they weren't too much trouble," Jill said, rubbing the heads of Patrick and Junior.

"No, no," Scully said, pushing away her apron and rubbing the bruise on her stomach from the head on collisions as they ran into her racing through the kitchen. "No trouble at all," she smiled.

Matthew was immediately asleep in his mother's arms. "I'm gonna put him to bed," Tara said, marching up the steps to the upstairs bedrooms..

Scully sat down a minute, chatting with Jill until Tara returned to sit next to her husband Bill who was glued to the TV. Charles too was ignoring his wife and sister as the women sat on the sofa pulling out gifts to slip under the Christmas tree.

"So where's Mulder?", Tara asked, looking at the smudges of flour on a Dana's cheek and wiping it away.

"I thought for sure you'd bring Mulder!", Jill said.

Bill growled loudly and Tara rolled her eyes in his direction. "Oh hush, Bill. No one's talking to you."

"He broke his foot," Charles answered.

"Actually, we had a suspect that used a bat and attacked him. Fortunately, that was the only damage. We sometimes spend a lot of time in the hospital."

Jill and Tara looked at each other. "We have gifts for him. We'll send you home with the gifts for him then."

"I'm sure he'll like that," Scully smiled.

Her cellphone rang. "Speaking of the devil," Bill scoffed.

"Mulder? I thought you said, the medicine was kicking in?"

"I guess it wasn't strong enough. I slept about...what?"

"About a half an hour since I last spoke to you," she sighed. "I was sure I wrote the right dosage."

Scully was aware of all eyes on her as she talked to Mulder on the phone. "What are you doing now?"

"I thought I'd hop into the little girls and boys room," he said, sliding his left foot to the floor and wincing from the contact it made with the carpeted floor.

He grabbed the crutches next to the bed and tried to balance his cellphone against his head. "Scully?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I call you back in a few minutes?"

"Sure," she said. "Be careful, okay," she said, in a syrupy sweet voice that she reserved solely for him.

Charles pretended to gag while Bill looked disgusted. Tara and Jill both sported grins as they watched with fascination.

Scully avoided their eyes and looked at her nephews who were playing on the floor as she waited for him to call back. The phone's ring broke the silence in the room and she was aware that her family were all staring at her. "Mulder?"

"Hey Scully. I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

She stared back. "Nope, you're not disturbing me."

"So, what are you doing," he said, swinging his leg back onto the bed, leaning back against the headboard as he strained to lift his left up onto the pillows.

Scully overheard his moans as he repositioned himself in the bed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good. What about, you? Drinking eggnog and being jolly?"

"We're about to start dinner and then go to Evening Mass. Father McCue will be there."

"That sounds good," he said, sleepily.

"I want you to rest as much as possible," she said, ignoring her family.

"Okay, Scully," he said, as his eyes began to roll in the back of his head. "Merry Christmas, Scully."

"You too," she sighed and listened as he clicked off.

"Awl, he doesn't sound so good," Tara stated.

"I know," Scully sighed, loudly. "It's hard...," and then she grew silent.

"No, don't be silly," Jill encouraged. "We understand. You miss him. What Christmas haven't you spent worried and missing your partner?"

"You mean while he was off chasing after little green men!", Bill huffed. "Or trying to get you killed or keeping you away from your family!"

"Bill!", Tara said.

"Shut up Bill!", Scully hissed. "Mulder is in excruciating pain right now but he is insisting that I be here. It's important to him that I'm here since we don't see each other often. And I'm..."

"Torn?", Jill said, smoothing her hand over Scully's arm. Her sister-n-law was younger than her but having married Charles straight out of high school, she seemed so much older.

"Yes, I'm torn. I miss him!", she said, looking down at her hands.

"Awl, we know that," Tara smiled. "It's written all over your face. It's like you can't function without you're other half. I know how that feels."

Scully smiled at Tara and then frowned at her brother Bill who rolled his eyes in her direction.

"Maybe then, tomorrow afternoon, you could cut out early?", Joy said.

"Yeah, I'm sure mom would understand," Charles added.

Scully nodded.

"Girls, come on, let's work on dinner so we can get a good row at Mass!", Maggie called from the kitchen.

Scully, Tara and Jill all rose and headed for the kitchen. Scully tightened her apron and rewashed her hands and joined her female family members as they began the ritual of cooking they had every Christmas Eve. Tara and Jill chatted amongst themselves about recipes and potting training tips as Scully concentrated on chopping potatoes while her mother watched her carefully. "So, Fox called again? I thought I heard the phone ring?"

Scully smiled. "Yes, he's still in and out of it. I apparently didn't adjust his meds correctly because he's still lucid."

"Or maybe he just really wants to hear your voice," she said, opening the oven to check the pot roast.

Scully was temporarily distracted by the intoxicating smells as Maggie used as turkey baster to baste the rich Guinness flavored broth over the large beef roast lined with potatoes, onions and carrots. "That smells incredible."

"It's what my mom would have every year and what you kids looked forward too every year as well," Maggie said, as her mind wondered back. "You're father tolerated a turkey on occasion but only for when we were having large parties but when it was just the family, this was it. Christmas Eve dinner."

"Smells like home," Scully said, inhaling deeply.

"Maybe you'll make it for you and Fox," Maggie said, with a smile.

"Maybe," Scully smiled back. "I think he'd love me even more if I did."

Maggie touched her cheek. "As long as you make each other happy it really doesn't matter!"

"We will," Scully smiled.

"I have no doubt," Maggie said, looking into her daughter's eyes. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you both to realize that you love each other."

Scully blushed and then looked up into her mother's eyes. "I think we knew along time ago but we were scared. And now we aren't scared any more."

"Do they know at work?", Maggie said, closing the oven door.

"No, that wouldn't be wise," Scully sighed.

"Does his family know?," Maggie said, curiously.

"His family ," Scully sighed. "They no longer exist."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and crowded around her. "What do you mean?", Tara asked.

"Mulder's mom," Scully said, as she felt herself tearing up. "Committed suicide."

All eyes turned towards Maggie and she closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I can't even imagine," she whispered. "I could never leave you kids that way," she said, looking at Dana and her two daughter-n-law's who were like her own daughter's. "After you're father died and then Melissa, I was lost...dead inside for awhile but I still never thought about that."

Scully embraced her equally small mother and they held each other for a long moment. "How is he taking it?", Maggie said, concerned.

Scully pulled back. "In his Mulderish way," Scully smiled. "By calling me a hundred times. But, he really never had a relationship with his mother the way I do with you."

Maggie nodded but Scully could see that she was still concerned so she kept explaining.

"Besides, Mulder grew up Dutch Jewish though his mom was a practicing Protestant. His father insisted that they go to Hebrew school anyway."

"Aren't you Jewish through your mom's side?", Jill asked.

Scully nodded. "Yeah. But, he was raised Jewish and his mother would throw in a Protestant service for good measure but he considers himself to be fundamentally more Jewish so this really isn't his holiday anyway," she said, looking at her devoutly Catholic family members.

Scully eyes drifted up to the cross hanging above the kitchen doorway and then back to her family.

"Well, when you see him, give him a big hug from all of us!", Maggie sighed. "I can't imagine a mother being so selfish!"

Scully's glanced at her sister-n-laws who were nodding their agreement.

"Any brothers or sisters?", Jill asked.

"No, at the time of his mother's death we found out his sister that he'd been looking for was also long dead."

All three women stared at Scully. She could see such compassion and sympathy in their eyes. "You're all he has left," Tara stated plainly.

Scully scanned their eyes and then bowed her head for a moment, trying to compose herself before lifting her eyes back up to face them. "Yes, I am...forever!"

"I don't doubt that," Maggie smiled as she looked into the determined blue eyes of her only daughter. "Not a doubt in my mind that you were made for him and he was made for you. You were like puzzle pieces and now that you're fitted together you cannot be removed. It's for life, like you're dad and I. You couldn't have one without the other."

Scully nodded. "Thanks mom!"

Tara and Jill smiled as they all turned back to their tasks to cook their Christmas Eve feast. After the dishes were done, Scully's phone rang once more as they donned their winter coats and boots to trudge out into the late winter's night to head to St. Matthew's Catholic Church where a home-coming welcome for Father McCue would follow the Christmas Eve Mass. She locked her mother's door behind her as she dug into her coat pocket for her cellphone; a bag full of small silver cookie tins dangled from her other arm.

"Mulder? You didn't sleep long. I had a good two hours since you called me last," she said, as everyone piled into various cars.

"Am I sensing a tone, Scully?", he said, as he sipped on a cup of water. "Am I getting on your nerves?"

"No," she said, slipping into the passenger seat behind her mother and slammed the door, snicking on her seat-belt as Charles pulled off into the snowy street. "I miss you, actually."

"How much?", he said, with a smile.

"A great deal," she said, in a whisper.

Junior and Patrick were crammed next to their tiny Aunt Dana practically in her lap with their mother, Jill sandwiched next to the other door. Jill smiled to herself as she overheard their conversation.

"That doesn't sound like much," he said, trying to muffle the sounds of pain he was experiencing.

"More than I can ever say," she said and then glanced up as Charles made kissy noises as he drove.

Maggie turned her head towards her youngest son giving him 'The Look' and he immediately stopped teasing his oldest sister.

"That sounds about the way I feel about you. Words could never express," he said, as pain shot down to his foot.

"Mulder? Did you put ice on your bandages to keep the swelling down?"

"Yeah," he lied. "I'm doing that now...But," he said, trying to change the subject. "Did you know that Michael Landon, the angel from Highway to Heaven was actually Jewish?"

Scully could hear Adam Sandler's scraggly voice belting out 'The Hanukkah Song' in the background.

"We're here!", Maggie said, stepping out of the car.

Everyone began piling out as Bill and Tara holding Matthew bundled up in their arms stood outside of Charles' car.

"I love you so much," she said, as her heart sank, listening to him wrestle uncomfortably in her bed.

"I love you too."

"We're going into Mass now, so I can't talk to you."

"Alright," he said, sadly, as he flopped his head back against the headboard and stared up at the ceiling.

"I'll call you in a few hours," she said, as Bill tapped on the car window.

"Dana, come on! It's freezing out here!"

"I've gotta go!", she said, hanging up.

She stepped out into the crisp air and followed her family up to the church steps dusting off their boots as they entered the church. They dipped their fingers into the baptismal fountain and made the sign of the cross with their right hands. They walked down the aisle and slid into the pews and knelt down at the kneeler, again making the sign of the cross and bowing their heads.

Mulder was bored. He stared at the mess next to him. He had spilled two drinks on Scully's bedspread and he knew she would kill him the minute she got back but he couldn't help it. He had been in pain. It was harder than he thought trying to take care of himself with a broken foot but he especially missed her. She was the one that he looked forward to seeing when he woke up every morning or at work, or just talking to on the phone and though she was just an hour away it felt like she was an eternity away.

As much as he had claimed that he wouldn't mind her going to her families for the holidays, it was bothering him in a way he didn't know if he could deal with. He had always secretly wished he could spend time with her at the holidays but she would often see right through his attempts and he'd spend it as a lone jogger on the streets of Alexandria in the early morning hours, jogging while other's were opening gifts with their families or heating up a turkey pot pie. 'So many years we wasted. But we weren't together then...and now...now we are,' he thought to himself. 'And I'm still alone except with a broken foot.'

He lay back listening to the third version of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song on SNL, wishing she was there with him.

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