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'Dinner went well. Very well, actually,' Scully reflected as she began to start washing the dishes. Mulder was putting Emmy, as her mother had now dubbed her, to bed. Scully was hoping that her daughter won't become extremely confused by all of her nicknames. So far, she seemed indifferent towards whether or not she was called Emily and Scully supposed this was a good thing. If they wanted to keep her safe and with them, they needed to get out of the habit of using her old name.

Maggie had been surprisingly good during her visit. There were no embarrassing jibes, no interrogations about her new relationship with Mulder, no hinting at marriage. There hadn't even been any teasing about how she had 'known all along' that they were meant for each other. Her attention had been solely focused on Em throughout the whole dinner Lucky enough for Maggie, Em wasn't the least bit shy, reserved, or apprehensive towards her like she normally was around new people. She had taken an instant liking to her grandmother.. much like how she had when she met Scully, too.
Emily- 'no, Emmy,' Scully reminded herself- had grown so fond of her grandmother in the few hours they were together that Maggie offered to take her overnight on Friday. And as much and Scully and Mulder didn't want her to leave them, even for a night, they agreed because.. well… they could use a night of having the apartment completely to themselves….

Scully blushed scarlet at the prospect. It was just then that Maggie decided to make her entrance into the kitchen. Upon seeing her daughter's expression. "Whatcha thinking about there, Dana?" she asked knowingly.

Scully violently dropped the dish that she was holding into the sink out of embarrassment at being caught fantasizing. She whipped around guiltily towards her mother. "Um.. I… nothing important.." she stuttered and then continued to blush further. Maggie smirked at her.

"So…," Maggie started, "How long have you and Fox been together?"

"Oh God, it was so stupid of me to think I was getting away from this dinner without you berating us with questions, wasn't it?" Scully sighed, more so to herself than her mother.

"So, a while then? You've been referring to yourself this whole time as 'we'; did you know that, Dana?"

Scully turned off the kitchen faucet and turned away from the dishes she was doing. "No, Mom. I wasn't aware that we were doing that," she sighed as she wiped her hands off on a dishtowel.

"SEE! You did it again!" Maggie laughed. "But in all seriousness… how long have you been together? You avoided the question the first time and don't you think that I didn't notice." She gently reprimanded her daughter with a small smile.

Scully looked down at the floor as she answered her mother. "Actually … we weren't together until yesterday.." She trailed off as she looked up and watched her mother's eyes grow big.

"Yesterday? Really?" Scully nodded in response. "I guess you guys have always acted like an old married couple…. but I was so sure that you'd been together at least a year when I was watching how you two functioned and interacted with each other tonight, and with Emmy too."

Scully's smile faltered. "Mom. I wouldn't have hidden a serious relationship from you. Especially if it was with Mulder." She croaked out, disappointed that her mother thought that she'd be willing to hide a long-term relationship from her own family. 'Well maybe Bill,' she thought to herself. 'OH SHIT! How were they going to tell Bill?!' Scully started to panic internally; her mother's voice brought her back out of her thoughts.

"Well, Dana. How would I know? You've never really been open or forthcoming about your feelings… not even when you were little… I mean, over the past seven years you have not once admitted to me that you loved Fox, even in a platonic manner. And now here I come over and you've made yourself this little 'ready-made, instant' family with him."

Scully sighed exasperatedly. "I know, Mom. I'm sorry; I'm really trying to be better about that. especially because I have Em now.

"That's all I ask." Maggie turned to grab her her car keys off of the counter. "Tell my favorite son-in-law- I mean Fox- that I said goodnight. And when Emmy gets up tomorrow, tell her that I'm excited about our sleepover on Friday." She smiled at her daughter.
Scully, who looked to be not at all surprised, but rather annoyed by her mother's implied marriage comment, replied, "You just couldn't manage to leave here without sneaking something like that in, could you?"

"No, I couldn't. Can you blame your poor old aging mother? She wants to see her daughter get married. And now you have both Fox and Emmy. He's a good man, Dana. I love him like he was my own son and I'm pretty sure that you love him too since you're together and raising a kid with him…"

"Well, Mom, there are several things that are stopping us. Some of them include the fact that we've been together for a day, he hasn't asked me, we haven't even talked about it… And it's not like I don't want to; because I would love to. But we're FBI partners, too; getting married could give the Bureau grounds to split us up and close the X-Files. I can't do that to him. I can't ask him to give up his life's work. And now we have Em to think about, too. I don't want to confuse her even more. Her life has changed so much already for one week.

Nodding in understanding, Maggie headed for the door. Just as she reached over to open it, she turned around to face Scully. "She really does resemble you, you know?"

"I know." Scully's lips crooked upwards into a small smile.
"But she got Fox's eyes and lower lip... She really is the perfect combination of you two."

Her eyes pricked with tears upon hearing this for what felt like the fiftieth time this week. Scully wished it were true. God, how she wished it were true. What was she supposed to say, though, when everyone kept saying that her daughter looked like someone with whom she shared no actual blood relation to? She finally found her voice after a good thirty seconds of silence, "Goodnight, Mom. I love you. Drive safe I'll see you on Friday, okay?"

Maggie, not seeing the small wave of sadness wash over her daughter's face, smirked knowingly. "Alright, alright, I know when I'm being pushed out the door." She winked at Scully. I love you, too." Maggie said as she opened the door. "Have funnn!" She called back to Scully in a sing-song voice as she left.

"Did Maggie just leave?" Mulder asked quietly as he walked into the living room, doing his best to pretend that he didn't just eavesdrop on their entire conversation. He smiled. Mulder had some plans to make now that he knew more or what that beautiful brain of hers was thinking.

"Mulder," Scully began with a bemused expression and a slight blush. "I'm pretty sure that my mother just gave us the go-ahead to go have sex…" She giggled slightly and started to walk towards him.

"Oh, did she now?" Mulder asked with a grin as he slipped his arms around her waist and then slowly downwards so his hands could give her ass a squeeze.

"She did."

He leaned in to start sucking on the side of her neck, right where it connected with her shoulder. Scully must have approved of the action because she made a sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a sigh- and Mulder thought it was absolutely adorable. "Well, I vote that we listen to her, Scully." He said in between kisses, beginning to walk them back wars towards the bedroom.

"Oh, God," she moaned and then smiled wickedly. "Maybe just once tonight. I don't think I have it in me for an all-nighter again; I'm really sore."

She pulled away to smile innocently at Mulder as she moved her hand downwards, searching for a certain something to grope, and used her other hand to make a grab for his belt.

'Oh, yeah. I definitely have some planning to do,' was Mulder's last coherent thought before he gave in to the passion and wanton lust that he had for the tiny, little, spitfire redhead that was and always will be the love of his life.