Vacation: Day Five
The travel from Bill's to Las Vegas is a lot shorter, so Mulder at the very least is looking forward to that. Scully seemed to have been as well...right up until she got a call from her younger brother that morning to tell her that his family wouldn't be joining them until Lake Tahoe after all. After that she became a lot more subdued, mostly going through the motions of packing everyone up and kissing Bill and Tara (and Mattie) goodbye until they meet up again in a few more days.
She doesn't say much during the entire, abet short, flight.
"Charlie admitted that Elaine hadn't wanted to go to Vegas, anyway, didn't he?" Mulder asks in an effort to console his wife as they arrive in Sin City. "So she, at least, might be having a better time at home."
"I know."
But Scully still looks unhappy. "But?" he prompts. Zoe is snoring on his lap as the plane begins to empty, and he worries that her stuffy nose is a harbinger of a coming cold.
"I hate to miss any time with him," Scully says with a shrug. "I see him so infrequently as it is."
"We'll have to invite them for a long weekend," he finds himself suggesting. "Maybe Labor day."
"Or Veteran's day."
"Sure."
As they get their children off the plane, Mulder is grateful that the agency they used to employ all of the nannies that they've had over the years- except for Krycek who volunteered and will literally punch anyone who refers to his time installed in the Mulder household as nannying - also gives childcare references for visiting families. He and Scully don't intend to spend all four nights in Vegas gambling, but they do want to be able to do things with out the kids once or twice.
As they're walking towards the shuttle that will bring them to their hotel, Mulder notices that Sammy's shoulders are slumped. He stops his oldest son, who looks up at him expectantly. "What's wrong?" Mulder asks. Sammy shrugs. "Out with it."
Sammy isn't as into eye-rolling or world weary sighs as his older sister, but the look on his face clearly states that he wishes his father would just drop it. Eventually he realizes Mulder isn't going to. Sammy waves at the nearby buildings. "The pictures I saw made this all look a lot cooler. This is kind of boring."
"So you're disappointed," Mulder says. As he speaks he pushes Zoe and Brianna's stroller back and forth, which makes the toddlers giggle quietly.
"Yeah."
Mulder tries to see the immediate area through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy: at that very moment they're not near the more photogenic parts of Vegas, and in the harsh light of day, it's plain that a lot of the big signs are in need of a replacement for faded and peeling paint. Sammy isn't wrong to say it doesn't live up to promotional photographs.
"Wait until tonight to pass judgment," Mulder advises, patting his shoulder. "I bet most of the pictures you saw were taken at night."
Sammy thinks about this. "Yup."
"There's a reason for that, kiddo. The lights make everything look more magical."
"Like at Saint Ambrose?" Sammy asks, referring to the holiday light display put on by a monastery near Maggie Scully's home.
"Just like that," Mulder tells him, knowing that Sammy has seen the monastery during the day. "Or maybe more like Halloween, huh?"
"Okay," Sammy says, brightening. "I won't expect it to look good until tonight."
"That a boy," Mulder replies with a smile. But it quickly turns to a frown when he looks for Scully and notices as soon as he spots her that she looks upset. Grabbing the stroller handles, he says, "Let's catch up."
"K."
When they finally catch up to everyone else, it's instantly clear that Scully's exasperation is at Page, Jared, and David, not at April or the two youngest boys who are quietly observing.
"Mom!" Page's tone borders on outrage. "Tell them to stop saying that!"
"Uh, uh," David says, jutting out his lower lip. "It's true."
"No it isn't!"
"Yeah huh," Jared insists. "You're nine and Sammy is nine. That's the same age."
"But that doesn't...!" Page sputters before noticing Mulder. "Daddy, please tell them they're being dumb."
He shakes his head. "I don't have any dumb kids."
"Dad!" She heaves an aggrieved sigh. "I didn't say they were dumb. I said they we're being dumb. There's a difference."
"Without distinction," Scully says sharply.
"I don't even know what that means," Page complains.
Mulder is trying to think of a way to defuse the situation, when Sammy, who has just been listening finally speaks up. "We're not the same age," he tells his little brothers.
They both looks shocked and somewhat upset that he's apparently taking Page's side. She just casts the younger boys a vindictive look and they scowl at her. "But you're nine too," David says sounding rather petulant.
"But I'm only nine," Sammy tells him. "Page isn't."
"She's not?" Jared gives him an uncertain look.
"Page is gonna be ten real soon," Sammy explains. "So she's like nine and eleven twelfths. That's way older than just nine."
"Sammy isn't even nine and fifty-one fifty-seconds yet," April comments. Sammy might hate math, but his sisters show an aptitude for it. At least the sisters who are big enough to know what numbers are.
"Oh." The older set of twins look disappointed to have been defeated by this unassailable logic.
Mulder decides to take advantage of the passing storm. "Come on, get on the shuttle. First person to finish unpacking gets to help mom and me decide where to go for lunch."
Giving the kids a stern look, Scully corrects his statement. "First person to neatly unpack."
"Right. I meant what mom said."
It takes a few minutes to get everyone settled on the shuttle bus their family half fills, but eventually Mulder and Scully are sitting together with Zoe and Brianna. Leaning against him, Scully murmurs into his ear. "That was a nice bit of peace keeping Sammy did back there."
"Wasn't it? Maybe he has a future with the UN."
She shakes her head and smiles. Mulder looks behind them, at their now behaving children, and then back at his wife. They've had a million conversations about their children over the past decade, but very few have been about their expectations for the kids' futures.
He's distracted for a moment when he needs to get Zoe to sit back down - and try not to give into the winning power of a baby pout - but then begins to wonder if other parents have trouble trying to imagine their kids all grown up. It's been a struggle all along, he realizes: when Page was still in diapers, he couldn't have fathomed her being as old as she is now. Even after watching her grow for almost ten years he still finds it hard to accept that things like a first bra, a first school dance, and the first time he or Scully are brave enough to let her behind the wheel so they can give her a driving lesson are coming up whether he likes it or not.
And that's just Page, the oldest. The thought of their baby daughters ever needing the money they've set aside for college is almost literally unimaginable. Maybe that's how it is for all parents, he thinks. If the future is shroud in a mist, it's easier to enjoy the here and now.
Vacation: Day Six
They don't do much the first day, mostly because everyone was so sleep depraved after spending time at Bill's -and privately Mulder's esteem of his brother-in-law has gone up a notch for not yet having been driven completely insane - that all of the kids ended up falling asleep shortly after an early dinner. Mulder and Scully try to pay attention to a movie on cable for a while before giving into sleep themselves.
The next morning, however, the kids are up and raring to go early. There's only so much Mulder can take without coffee, so he whistles until everyone shuts up and looks at him - even Zoe and Brianna goggle at him.
"Right. Everyone who isn't dressed go back to their rooms and do that now-" They've arranged for a suite with three rooms. "And then we can go."
"Go where?" Sammy asks suspiciously.
"The sooner we get there, the sooner you'll know, huh?" Mulder asks, giving his son's pajamas a pointed look.
All of the bigger kids scatter, and Mulder brings William and Christopher to the room they share with Zoe and Brianna. Christopher is mostly able to dress himself, but Mulder will help with any snaps, buttons, and laces. William could probably dress himself too to some extent, but he refuses to even try and Scully doesn't want to make an issue of it just yet.
"So, you guys having fun yet?" Mulder asks as he pulls a tee shirt over William's head.
As soon as William's red hair and blue eyes are visible he laughs and says, "No."
"No?" Mulder asks and William shakes his head. Expecting a less silly answer from his slightly older boy, Mulder turns to Christopher. "How about you?"
Christopher hesitates for a moment before shaking his head too.
"Well, I guess we're going to have to do something about that..." He lunges for his smallest sons who scream with laughter when he tickles them.
They play tickle-monster for another minute but then noise from the other alerts him that everyone is finally dressed. "Move 'em out," he tells Christopher and picks William up.
Since most of the kids share Mulder's affinity for fish, they end up at a large aquarium. It's not the most famous one in Vegas, but Scully pushed for it, thinking that it will be less crowded. And as the walk in, she's glad that the venue isn't any more crowded than it is.
Within seconds Scully finds herself reigning in her middle sons, both of whom have taken off for a jellyfish column in the center of the first room. Unrepentant, they look up at her with big smiles. "Mom, look how cool these guys are!" Jared crows, pointing at a small comb jellyfish that seems to have running lights in it. "Is that real?"
"Sure is," his mother tells him.
His eyes widen and it's clear that he expected her to tell him that the 'lights' are no more natural than the painted glass fish they'd seen in the pet store. "But how?!"
"I'm not sure," Scully admits. "But we can look it up."
"Okay."
David tugs her hand. "Do they have eyes? If they don't have eyes, how can they see?"
Before she can say anything Jared says, "Maybe they don't need to see. The tank has lights in it, but the ocean doesn't. Page says some things that live in caves don't got any eyes and a cave can't be darker than the ocean."
"Yeah, 'specially the deep parts," David agrees.
Taking advantage of the lull in her sons' conversation, Scully takes them by the hands. When they give her identical questioning looks, she says "Let's figure out where everyone else went."
They look around, clearly surprised that no one else is in sight.
A few twists and turns later, Mulder's tall form comes into view. "Daddy!" both boys cry, letting go of her hands to run to him.
Scully watches for a moment, marveling at how small they look at their tall father's side. Given that they have four younger siblings it's easy to forget that they are still so young. ::Don't grow up too fast:: she thinks, watching them tell Mulder about the jellyfish.
The man who sold them their tickets assured them that the coolest thing about the whole aquarium is the glass tunnel through a tank that holds an unfathomable amount of water; but probably not a "kajillion" gallons as Sammy insists. Mulder had wanted to progress though the exhibits in an orderly fashion, but after the fifth time he tries to interest the kids in something and they shrug him off with a "that's nice dad, but are we going to see the tunnel soon?" he finally decides to figure out where it is with Scully's blessing.
Given the kids' general enthusiasm for "finally" (to quote Page) seeing the exalted tunnel, it surprises Scully when Christopher stops dead at the mouth of the tunnel instead of joining his siblings who have already run inside with Mulder hot on their heels. She stops too, bending the best that she can with William on her hip - he'd freaked out over the crowds ten minutes earlier and demanded to be picked up - and looks at Christopher's face. He looked more worried than awed.
Eventually he looks up at her, blue eyes wide. "Mommy?"
"Yes?"
His voice drops to a whisper. "Is it safe?"
Scully watches a shark glide by, wondering if he's somehow worried that the big predators could get them. Frowning at this, she begins to worry that she and Mulder need to have another conversation about what is and isn't appropriate movie-viewing for their kids. "What do you mean?" she finally asks, deciding that it's better to just ask than make assumptions.
"That's glass, right?" he asks, pointing at the walls of the tube.
This confuses her a little: she can't imagine how he'd fear the sharks getting them if he's aware that a barrier separates them from the sea life. "Right."
Christopher doesn't look any less worried. "Water's real heavy-" he says, reminding her of earlier in the month when she caught Sammy and the other boys using the bathroom scale to weigh various containers of liquid, like milk, water, and cooking oil. "-and that man says there's lots and lots of water. How come the glass don't break?"
The question makes her wish she knew an engineer. Giving an answer her best shot, she says, "The people who designed the tank know exactly how thick and strong the glass has to be to be safe, Christopher. They wouldn't let anyone use the tank without doing a lot of testing to make sure that it's safe."
Her son cants his head. "Tests like on Myth Busters?"
"Sort of. A lot more rigorous-" He gives her a blank look. "A lot more careful than that. More of them too."
"Oh." He stares into the tunnel for a moment longer. Then he slips his hand into hers, and they make their way inside.
Five minutes later he's with April, pointing out fish to each other and laughing, fear completely forgotten.
