A/N: kay, so finally!... here's the right story for this chapter (lol) messed it up a bit (or a lot) earlier when I updated my other story. Anywho, a reviewer asked for some more emotion for this chapter… so enjoy lol

As everyone sat around the tree, Scully smiled at the look her mother had on her face. It was an expression that exuded complete contentedness. She had an inkling that her mom would pray about thankfulness at breakfast. Her attention refocused over Mulder, who was sitting next to her. He was opening her present. It wasn't much, but she thought that he would enjoy it.

"Thank you, Scully," Mulder smiled.

"I thought you might enjoy it..." Scully chewed on her lip. She had picked out a VHS version of "Bride of the Monster," knowing how much Mulder loved Ed Wood. That was before. Now, if she were to go out and buy something for him, she would pick out something completely different. It didn't matter, she reminded herself. That was then and this was now. There was only room to move forward from here.

"I've never seen this one actually," he stated with reverence. "Can we watch it when we get back to DC?"

She laughed. "Yeah, Mulder. We can do that." Her eyes moved back to the tree. "So which one's mine?" She tried to keep the anticipation out of her voice, but it was of no use.

Mulder's smile quickly dropped off quickly. "I, uh-" he stuttered nervously. "There isn't really a present that you unwrap… per se..." He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the ground. "It was more of an idea that I needed to talk to you about first..."

"Okay.." Scully noted slowly. "What did you want to talk about?" She was glad that her family's attentions were elsewhere at the moment. She didn't need their questioning stares to make things tenser.

"Can we talk about it in the kitchen or something?" His eyes flitted over to everyone else, a sign that he wanted more privacy.

"Sh-sure." Scully was slightly taken aback… What could he want to talk about? She got up slowly and held her hand out for him.

He took it gratefully and got up off the floor, as well.

Scully eyed her mother and mouthed to her that they would be back in a minute. She led him to the kitchen pantry and shut the door.

"The pantry, Scully?"

"What? No one's going to think to look for two grown adults in here."

"What if they think we're… doing stuff..." He was trying to ease the atmosphere with his poor, sarcastic, smart-ass humor.

She laughed anyway. It died in her throat, though, when he suddenly grabbed both of her hands in his and held them loosely between their bodies. Her eyes strained up to seek his.

"Scully," he began shakily. "Before I ask you this… I want you to know that you can say no. You can absolutely say no. If it's too much… if you've changed your mind… I don't want you to say yes just to shut me up-"

"Mulder, what is it?" Scully couldn't recognize the look in his eyes and it was throwing her off.

"If it were possible to do another round of IVF..."

Scully sucked in a harsh breath. This was not at all what she was even thinking was in the realm of possibility for him to bring up.

"... would you want to?" He glanced back and forth between her eyes, trying to figure out if he had overstepped his bounds or not.

"But… Mulder, how?" Scully was confused.

He took a big breath. "If you want to try again… with the eggs that are left from the vial that I found… then I want us to."

She shook her head, biting back the tears that were springing forth just from thinking about it. "No, Mulder… It's too expensive! I almost broke my savings account just trying to pay for the first try."

"Scully," he pleaded, hands tightening around her own subconsciously. "I know how expensive it is. What I'm asking is… if there was nothing else standing in your way… would you want to try again?"

"Yes," she hissed quietly, finally losing control over the build-up of liquid in her eyes. The tears rolled down heavily.

"Then let's try, Scully." He let go of one of her hands in order to tip her chin up to look at him. "Let's try. Don't worry about the money. I'll handle it."

"Mulder, I can't ask you to do that," she choked out.

He pulled her closer, wrapping her small form up in his arms. "That's the thing, Scully," he talked into her hair as he rested his cheek on the top of her head. "You're not asking me. I'm offering. I want this too, Scully. I want this with you. I always have. And if we can try again- if you want to try again- then I think we should."

Scully let out a small sob and moved her arms out from between them and snaked them around his stomach.

"And if it doesn't work… then we'll be here to help each other get through it. We can look at other options, too. There are so many orphans out there, Scully. We could give a few of them a good home." He suddenly lost confidence in himself. He added quickly, "If- if that's what you want, Scully. And if you don't want to do the IVF again, that's fine, too. I can't even imagine how hard that was for you to go through. All of the hormone injections and doctor's appointments… and for something that wasn't anywhere close to being a sure shot."

Silence.

"I know what you're thinking," he quavered. "You're thinking that I'm only offering to do this because we're… whatever we are now… but I'm not. Scully, I wanted it when I said yes. I wanted to have that with you. And it hurt like hell when it didn't take, but I wasn't sure if the pain was something that I was supposed to have been feeling. We never really talked about what my role was going to be beside the doner… but dammit, Scully! I want it! I want it all with you. If you'll have me."

She couldn't say anything. Not yet. She needed to get her emotions under control first. Mulder didn't seem to mind. He just held her quietly and let her cry herself out, not even noticing his own tears that were slowly leaking out of his eyes and into her hair.

After what seemed like forever, Scully was finally able to gather herself enough to speak. She rubbed her face back and forth over the front of his sweater. It was a good thing that she wasn't currently wearing makeup. She'd look like a trainwreck. "Mulder, Mulder, Mulder," she chanted under her breath.

Mulder waited as she stood there silently, with her head buried in his chest. She let out a small sound that made his heartbeat rush. She said yes. Maybe he imagined it. "What? What did you say, Scully?" He took her face in his hands.

"Yes, Mulder. Yes." She said through squished lips. "I want it all with you, too- have from the beginning. I want to try again."

"Oh, Scully," he gushed, moving his arms under her own so he could pick her up off the ground, closer to him.

She let her feet dangle, while she wrapped her arms around his neck, hands coming to rest in his hair. Her fingers sifted through the hair on the back of his head. The biggest smile broke out over her face.

He could feel her lips widening against his cheek. It was infectious. "Thank you, Scully." He felt his throat tighten with emotion.

She giggled. "For what? I should be thanking you..."

"For saying yes… For loving me… For giving me a chance." Mulder let her feet drop back down to the ground. He pressed a lingering kiss to her lips. "God, I love you so much."

"Mulder?"

"I love you, too. This is- you are- the best present anyone has ever given me." She concluded her statement with a sniffle.