A/N: Sorry for the wait. Hope this makes up for it.
Margaret Scully hummed quietly to herself as she set the table for lunch. Rare were the times her daughter came to visit. Rarer still were the times that Fox Mulder joined them. Despite what her daughter had been through in the last several years, she couldn't help but have some affection for the rogue FBI agent. Fox respected Dana probably more than any man ever had. He looked her in the eye when he talked to her. He anticipated needs, understood her frustrations, and made her smile. Save for a few obvious flaws, he was the man Maggie would have picked for her daughter. Of course, trying to convince the two of that would be even less successful than understanding any words that came out of Charo's mouth.
She smiled as she heard the door open.
"Mulder, that's not what I said."
"Yes you did."
"I did not."
"Yes you did. You're attracted to Donald Trump."
"I am not. I just said that looks aside, money and success can be very attractive to some women."
"Okay then, looks aside, you're attracted to him."
"I'm not. Some women are. That's all I said."
"Admit it."
"Sure. I'll admit it when you admit your fond affection for Glenn Close."
"That will never happen."
"Then we are at an impasse."
Maggie chuckled as she came around the corner.
"The two most stubborn people in the world. You'll be at an impasse forever."
They both smiled and hugged her before following her into the other room.
"It smells amazing in here, Maggie."
"Thank you. I don't get to cook a big meal very often."
Mulder noticed the sad look exchanged between mother and daughter, but he didn't comment.
"Tell me, Scully. How did your dad not become morbidly obese?"
What?" she giggled, turning to face him.
"Your mother's cooking. If I ate that every day of my life, I would get really fat."
She smiled and stretched her legs out towards the fireplace. Maggie had fed them lunch then insisted they stay for dinner. She was in the other room now, doing the dishes, and the two of them were laying on the living room floor, watching the fire burn.
"I guess because they had four ravenous kids and mom and dad were lucky if they ever got a full meal."
"I see. They how come none of you guys are fat?"
"Metabolism like you wouldn't believe. I could probably eat more than you could, Mulder."
"Wanna bet?"
She groaned and patted her stomach.
"Not right now."
He chuckled and glanced over at her. He'd never noticed the small flecks of gold in her eyes. They way they caught the firelight reminded him of the Northern Lights.
"Mulder?"
"Yeah?"
"I need to talk to you."
"Ok, shoot."
"Not here. This is important and I don't want my mom to overhear anything. I need to talk to you first."
"Since when am I your go-to person instead of your mom?"
"How long have we been partners?" she countered with a smile. "It's just something I would rather have your opinion on. You're more objective on stuff like this."
"Would this stuff you're referring to have anything to do with your doctor's appointment the other day? The one you snuck off to and never told me anything about?"
"Yes, it would."
"Are you sick?"
"No, everything's fine. I just want to run something by you."
"You're worrying me."
"There's nothing to worry about, I promise. We'll talk on the way home, okay?"
He nodded and ran his thumb across her forehead.
"As long as you're alright."
"I am."
They shared a smile and she scooted a little closer to him.
"We should have weekends like this more often."
"Yeah. Especially the pie part."
She yawned and let her eyes close.
"Scully, are you going to sleep on me?"
"No, I'm going to sleep on the floor."
He snickered and jostled her a little bit.
"Should we head home?"
"Yeah, probably."
He helped her stand up, then pulled her into a hug.
"You know what?" he asked, tipping her chin up so she could look at him.
"What?"
"I'm glad we're friends again. I thought it would never happen."
She nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. The last year and a half had almost ended their partnership, not to mention their friendship. They had come out of it stronger than before, but it had been hard, and she never wanted to relive it. They had grown closer in the past 2 months than they had in the previous 7 years.
"I know. Me too. Let's not do that again, okay?"
"You've got a deal."
"Okay, Scully, what did you want to talk to me about?"
Scully sighed slightly from her spot in the driver's seat. She'd been thinking about how to say this for a long time. So far, blurting it out was the only thing that came to mind, but she knew how he would take that. Badly.
"Okay. You know I went to the doctor on Thursday."
"Yes. But you said you're okay."
"I am. I didn't go for a check-up. I went... well, you remember, I told you I was going to need a second opinion."
He looked confused for a moment before the realization hit him.
"You went to a fertility specialist."
"Yeah, I did."
"Was it good news?"
"Yes. He said that if I start soon, there's a good chance that I could get pregnant."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Scully, that's amazing. It is what you wanted, right?"
"Yeah, it is."
"Then why do you look so sad?"
"I'm not. There's just more I need to tell you."
"Okay."
"Alright. Now you took biology and you know that it kinds of takes more than one person to make this thing work."
"I seem to recall that, yes."
"And I may like to sometimes refer to myself as superwoman, but I can't do this alone."
"You need a donor."
"Yeah."
"Okay. Do you want me to help you? We can go through the big book of dudes together and we'll pick out a nice doctor or lawyer or baseball player to anonymously provide you with assistance."
"Mulder, I don't want you to help me pick the donor. I want you to be the donor," she said quickly. Mulder's only response was silence and a sagging jaw.
"Now I see why you insisted on driving," he finally dead-panned.
"I'm sorry to be so blunt about it," she apologized in her classic "I'm about to ramble" voice. "I just... I was sitting there in the doctor's office and I just kept thinking about my options, and this kept popping into my head. I don't want you to feel pressured to say yes, because I won't hold it against you if you say no. I'm actually kind of expecting a no. But whatever you decide, whatever involvement you decide to have, this child will be a part of my life, and therefore a part of yours. And I need you to accept that. And I know that this is kind of a weird thing to ask you and maybe it's totally inappropriate, but I really needed to ask you this. I want you to be a part of it either way. And I want you to think about it for a while too. I know your natural inclination is to say yes, because you like to make me happy, but I don't want you to say yes if you don't really want to. And I need to know that you're going to be there for me and be my friend, no matter what. Okay?"
"I'll always be your friend, Scully. You know that. But the rest of this, I'm going to have to think about."
"Okay, take your time. But not too long, because we are kind of on a time constraint here."
"I just need a few days."
"Okay. Thank you for thinking about it."
They were quiet for the rest of the drive.
A/N II: Okay, I think we all know what happens next... but there are still some gaps to be filled. YAY!