A/N: Once again, apologizing to the huge mix up with chapters on the last update. Lol that was a mess, but I fixed it as soon as I saw it! I'm going to stick with my old method of posting immediately as I write instead of stocking up on chapters haha. Yeah, so I couldn't come up with a good next step for this story, and considering that it was supposed to be a shorter, holiday fic… I've decided to end it here with an epilogue. Don't worry though! I'll still be updating Second Chances when I can, as well as writing up some one-shots that I've been wanting to do for a while(: p.s. to the quest that reviewed with a request: you have been heard.

"Hey, Scully?" Mulder called her attention away from the case file that she was going over on the other side of the desk. "What time do we need to leave here, again?" he asked when her eyes met his.

"Eleven," she replied, trying to focus her attention back on the file. If she let her mind wander, she'd never make it through the next three hours until they got to leave. After a few minutes of silence, she noticed a card slide under the file on the desk. She set the file down and looked at it, avoiding Mulder's puppy dog look. "Mulder, what's this? You already told me happy birthday this morning."

"No, I didn't."

"Well, you showed me, at least." She could tell he was smirking.

"Scully, that doesn't count and you know it."

He paused for a second, making her suspicious. He was up to something.

"I could live forever with my head between yo-"

She practically flew over the desk in order to clamp a hand over his mouth.

It just made his grin bigger.

"No."

His words were muffled and intelligible in her hand and she was glad for it. He let out a long whining sound at the end that she figured was probably her name. Suddenly, he licked her palm in order to get her to draw her hand away.

"Really, Mulder?"

"What?" He shrugged with that devious smile still gracing his lips.

"Can I open my card now?"

He nodded wordlessly.

Scully picked up the card. The front had a cartoon depiction of the inside of an airplane. There was a green alien talking to the man sitting next to him. In a word bubble, the alien said, "Watch out if I doze off. I sleep probe." Scully couldn't help but let out a small laugh. It was perfect for them.

"I, uh- couldn't find one with a grey alien..." Mulder leaned back in his chair.

Scully kept looking down at the card. "It's funny… I know someone else that sleep probes..." she deadpanned. When she slyly glanced upward at him, still not moving the position of her head, she bit her lip in victory at Mulder's expression of fake offense.

"I. Do. Not!" he guffawed overdramatically.

She ignored him, choosing instead to open up the card and read what was on the inside. The line on the inside was mediocre and insignificant, but what Scully was paying attention to was what Mulder had written.

Happy Birthday, Scully! Look, I remembered just in time for another dog year. I hope you know how much I love and appreciate you, but in case you don't, I'm going to be spending the rest of my life proving it to you, so be prepared.

Love, Mulder.

P.S. Thank you for being you.

"Oh, Mulder." Scully got up and went to give him a hug. "Thank you. I love the card."

They were interrupted by the phone ringing. It was Skinner's secretary calling to tell them that they had their weekly meeting in ten minutes.

After they hung up the phone, Mulder held out his hand and walked toward the door, "C'mon, birthday girl. Let's go get this over with."

§§§

"Dana Scully?" the nurse of the fertility clinic called Scully and Mulder back out of the waiting room.

They followed her back to an examination room. The nurse pointed to the inclined table with stirrups and handed Scully a gown. Today was the day that they were going to do an examination on Scully in order to get the go-ahead to schedule an implantation. She had already come in last week to get her bloodwork done so the office could process it and analyze her hormone levels.

"The doctor will be with you in a moment," the nurse said as she walked out the door.

"Well, gee. She was a chatterbox," Mulder joked sarcastically.

Scully changed quickly and hopped onto the examination table, choosing not to put her feet in the stirrups until she absolutely had to.

The doctor- a tall grey hair man who was quite lean- came in sometime later, eyes glued to Scully's papers that he had in his hands. He looked up once he shut the door. "Hello, Dana. Hello Mr. Mulder." he greeted them kindly. There was an odd look in his eye.

Scully picked up on it immediately. The tension felt like it raised a thousand degrees in intensity. "What is it?"

"Dana, after this appointment we're going to have to transfer you to a different office." The doctor looked like he was holding something back.

Mulder sat down and glanced at Scully. She reached out for his hand and he took it.

The doctor continued. "Well, I want to check you out first, but unless there's been a mistake in the lab… we're not going to be able to do the implantation, Dana."

All of the color drained out of Scully's face. Mulder's hand gripped hers tightly. "Why not?" she retorted somewhat aggressively. The hormone injections that she'd been taking over the past few months have made her mood swings intense.

"I want to do an ultrasound, to double check… but Dana..." The doctor gave up on trying to explain it to them. He knew that she'd just demand to see the lab work anyway, no matter how much the results have flustered him. He handed it over and watched as Scully's eyes narrowed as she scanned the paper, and then widen she connected the dots. "I can't be!" Her voice denoted how sceptical she was.

"Well, Dana. That's why I want to double check."

"What? What is it?" Mulder was completely lost. He wasn't a doctor. The paper made no sense to him.

"Mulder, I might already be pregnant..." Scully's voice was riddled with her disbelief. After she read the results one more time she looked over at Mulder. "My hormone levels are akin to what they would be during the first trimester..."

He had a dazed, yet proud look on his face.

She rolled her eyes. "Can we do the ultrasound now?" she addressed the doctor, unable to keep the hope out of her voice.

"We sure can." He immediately began to set up the equipment. After he was done, he handed her a sheet to hold onto and he placed it over her legs. "I don't want to risk anything by doing a transvaginal ultrasound like we would normally do, so let's have you pull up your gown so I can use the wand on your stomach."

Scully did as she was told, squealing at the feeling of the cold gel that he began to put on her belly.

Mulder stayed quiet, leaning down every so often to kiss her forehead tenderly or rub a hand through her hair. They never let go of their joined hands.

The doctor ran the wand over her stomach for so long that Scully was beginning to lose her faith in hoping for a miracle. A few seconds after she began to mentally prepare herself for disappointment, the wand picked up a second heartbeat. It raced alongside the much slower pace of her own.

"Oh, my God!" Scully gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. "Oh, my God! Mulder!"

Mulder felt tears appear in his eyes. "Wow," he mumbled, eyes transfixed on the screen.

The doctor pressed a few buttons and measured the fetus. He made sure to point it out to them before clicking the print button on the machine. "Based off of your hormone levels and the size of the baby… Dana, I'd say you conceived somewhere around the time of New Year."

Mulder threw a saucy smirk Scully's way.

She blushed at the memory of how they celebrated on New Year's Eve and tugged her shirt back down over her belly after the doctor wiped off the gel.

The doctor gathered his things and made his way over to the door. "You're going to need to see your OBGYN from now on, Dana. Congratulations. You guys can leave whenever you're ready."

After he was gone, Scully threw her legs over the side of the table and yanked Mulder towards her. He enveloped her in a tight hug, one which she gladly reciprocated. A lone tear slipped down her cheek unnoticed.

"Guess my boys have superpowers, huh?" Mulder spoke into her hair.

"Mulder," she chided. "Shut up and kiss me."

He pressed his against hers with a new kind of heat. It felt different from all of their other kisses that they've shared in the past few months. "Hey, Scully?" Mulder said as he pulled away to rest his forehead against her, their noses brushing together ever so lightly. "Happy birthday."