Doggett had them booked on a flight to Wyoming the next morning, and by lunch time they were meeting with Doggett's social worker friend. She sat down in the chair opposite them. "I am Julia Henson; I am assigned as William's social worked. John tells me this is a very special situation."
"Yeah," Scully began, but she was unsure of how to explain their situation.
"You are in fact William's biological parents?"
"Yes, we are. I brought my copy of his birth certificate," Scully said, pulling the paper from her purse. Mulder remembered the first time he had seen the paper. Seeing his name printed on the line reading father had sent chills through him.
"Alright, Dana. So, we know you are William's mother, but you willingly gave up your parental rights when he was 10 months old, placing him for adoption?"
"Yeah, but I never wanted to give him up it was purely for his safety. I was trying to do the right thing," Scully's voice broke, as tears welled in her eyes. Mulder reached for her hand.
"I understand, however that doesn't change the facts. But Fox?" Julia turned her attention to Mulder. He nodded. "You are William's father?" Again, he nodded. "And you never signed away your parental rights?"
"No, I wasn't around when Sc… Dana had to make that choice," he said, squeezing Scully's hand.
"But you are his biological father?"
"Uh…" Mulder was unsure of what to say. In his mind he was William's father, but biology was still an undetermined aspect.
"Yes, he is," Scully said assertively.
"Scully?" Mulder questioned hesitantly.
"I don't want to get too personal here, but you were the only man I was sleeping with at the time and all of the fertility treatment I have undergone was with your sperm. Would you like to explain to Ms. Henson here how someone else could "biologically" be William's father?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"No," he said, quietly to Scully. Then, turning his attention to Julia, he said "I'm his father. It's on the birth certificate."
She nodded and said, "Alright, I understand we need to be somewhat delicate with this situation. But, being as you are William's closest biological living relatives and his adoptive parents have no family, I am comfortable awarding you guardianship of him."
"I think you must understand some of the threat here," Mulder began to explain. "Seeing as you know what happened to the Van Camps. We would like to draw as little attention to this as possible."
"Of course, the paperwork will be handled very quietly and put away in a drawer. Also, because you are not foster or adoptive parents we have no need to keep track of you. Once you leave, Children's services will no longer be keeping track of William."
Scully breathed out a sigh of relief. She felt like she had been holding her breath through the entire meeting. Finally, she asked, "Can we see him?"
"He is with an emergency foster family, now," Julia replied. "I will call them to let them know we will be coming to get him tonight. I am assuming you need some time to get things together for him."
"Yeah, we need a car-seat and such," Scully replied.
"Okay, well I can meet you at the foster parent's house at 4:30 today to get William; we just need you to sign some paper work now."
An hour later Mulder found himself standing an aisle at Babies 'R Us, completely overwhelmed. He had never known that car seats came in so many styles, or that they could be so expensive. Scully was standing at the end of the aisle watching Mulder cock his head in puzzlement at the car seats in front of him. She smiled, watching him and thinking how cute he looked. He seemed to sense her presences because without even turning he began to talk through his thought process, the way he had on cases when they worked on the X-files.
"So this one has the highest rating, but it is pink. This one is rated well too, and it does this cool swivel thing to make it easier to get the kid out. This one is pretty cool; it is designed for travel and can be a stroller or a car seat," he said, finally turning to look at her. "What do you think, Scully?"
"I think you sound like you are analyzing case findings," she joked. He raised an eyebrow at her, prompting her to continue. "And, I think you are a wonderful father."
"I haven't done anything, yet," he said.
"But, you are so invested, and it is a car seat. Mulder, they are all safe or they wouldn't be on the market. Any one with be great," she replied, touching his arm.
"Does he need a car seat on the plane? 'Cause if so this one might be good, the one that converts into the stroller for in the airport," Mulder said, going back to his car seat analysis.
"Yeah, I think the airlines require seats for kids over two," Scully replied. "So, we should probably use his car seat on the plane."
"So what do you think of this?" Mulder asked, pulling the model car seat down and showing Scully how it popped up to be a stroller.
"I think it would be great, good job," she bent down to where he was kneeling on the floor and kissed his cheek. She had thought it was funny when he had told her to continue looking at toddler clothes while he went and looked at the car seats. He had insisted on making the decision and then consulting her. Now, she thought it was incredibly cute that he was so invested in his parental decisions.
Mulder smiled up as her and stood up putting the model back and grabbing the large box off the shelf. "What else do we need?"
"I didn't pick out any clothes, because really I don't know what size to get him. We need to see him first," Scully's voice sounded a bit sad. "We probably need to get a stroller, but with that car seat we could wait to do that in Virginia. So, I think until we get him we are good."
"Scully, you did the right thing when you gave him up. I know you are sad at having missed the past year, but we are so lucky to get a second chance."
"I know, you are right," she replied. "I just wish I knew…I'm his mother, I should know everything about him. I mean I don't even know if he is still sleeping in a crib. If he is we need to get him someplace to sleep at the hotel tonight."
"You'll know soon enough, and then we will have the rest of our lives to know everything," Mulder said reassuringly. "What do you say after we pick him up tonight, we come back here or go somewhere else and buy him some more stuff?" Scully nodded and they went to pay for the car seat.