Morning arrived, and with it came a bemused Maggie Scully, who had got up early to fill the stockings on the wall and get some coffee going ahead of the rest of the family. She knew Mulder was in the lounge so she was being extra quiet, but she nearly dropped the small bag she was holding when she saw that her daughter was practically lying on top of the man.

Clutching the goods to her chest she willed herself not to get excited about this. After all, they were both fully dressed and it looked like they had been asleep for a good while. Bending closer, she saw what looked like tear tracks on her daughters face, and began to hope that what she thought might have happened hadn't happened, because if it had it looked like Dana had been severely disappointed.

Startled out of her thoughts by a soft sigh from Mulder, Maggie quickly deposited the presents in the stockings and snuck off to the kitchen. She debated whether she should wake Mulder and Dana now, so that Bill wouldn't catch them, but then realised she was assuming either of them would be cowed by him and chose not to. She was aware of Mulder's insomnia and knew that Dana never appreciated being woken. Even if Bill did find them it would probably be the lesser of two evils.

In fact, it was the thundering of tiny feet that woke the two couch potatoes. Mattie was up. He zoomed into the lounge, closely followed by Tara, and headed straight for the pile of presents under the tree. Tara went to stop him from ripping open everything there, but was stopped in her tracks as she noted Mulder and Scully together on the couch. She opened her mouth to ask what was going on but was interrupted by Maggie and Charlie entering the room from different doorways.

Awake now Scully sat up and moved back on to her knees. She closed her eyes and stretched, and as she opened them again she let out an excited cry.

"Mulder, look! Stockings!"

"You weren't wearing any." Came a sleepily mumbled reply from Mulder, who was trying to pull the duvet back over himself.

"No, Christmas ones." Scully insisted, clambering to her feet on the sofa and launching herself off the end of it. That woke Mulder up. He was upright instantly, turning to make sure she hadn't been hurt doing it. His concern was met with a large red sock that was shoved into his face.

Pulling back he took hold of it and turned it round. The word 'Fox' was stitched in beautiful lettering at the top. He looked at Maggie in astonishment, but she simply smiled back at him.

"I wasn't sure I could fit 'Mulder'." She told him, waving away any thanks he'd been about to give.

Touched, Mulder made a mental note to offer help whenever she might need it, but was soon distracted as Scully's full weight landed on his legs. Glaring at her he pulled his legs up to his chest so she slid off them, and made a show of being in agony. Scully simply rolled her eyes and moved down the couch a bit, refusing to give him an ounce of sympathy for the play-acting.

"Give it up Mulder. You're holding a stocking full of presents. Use those for comfort instead."

Mulder started to argue, but felt the weight of the stocking in his hand and thought better of it. Following both Mattie, who had finally been distracted from the tree presents by Tara, and Scully's examples he tipped the contents out onto his lap and set about ripping into them.

10 minutes later everyone in the room was surrounded by socks, pens, little figurines, keyrings and other assorted objects. Bill had arrived just as everyone began opening things. He'd glared at Mulder, more out of habit than reason, and then settled down to the easy task of opening presents, and the somewhat more arduous task of keeping Mattie confined to opening his own presents only.

Having been banned from getting involved with everyone else's stockings, Mattie was now staring longingly at the pile under the tree, but was unceremoniously removed from the floor and taken into the kitchen by Maggie, who called out as she left.

"Breakfast time. You know the rules, no proper presents until you've got some food in you. And that includes you, Dana and Charlie."

The two mentioned looked up guiltily, having just been whispering about hanging back. Laughing Mulder stood up and pulled Scully off the couch.

"I see you're miraculously cured." She said, looking at his legs and raising an eyebrow pointedly.

"I wouldn't argue with your mother." He said with as serious a face as he could muster, totally ignoring the comment. Scully threw him a look and then nodded sadly before heading off to the kitchen. Mulder was about to follow when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning he saw Charlie giving him a very appraising look.

"Yes?" He asked, wondering what was going on.

"Remember that I said I'd keep an eye on you? Work out for myself if you were an ok guy or not?"

Mulder swallowed heavily.

"Yes, I remember. Am I to assume you've come to a decision?"

Charlie nodded, his face not giving away a thing. Mulder hoped that he'd done enough to impress the man. He liked him, and loved watching the way Scully lit up around him. Plus, he didn't want another Bill to deal with.

"I've seen the way you treat my sister, and I have to say that …"

He paused just long enough to give Mulder the beginning of a stroke at the tension, and then broke into a smile as he continued.

"… I like it."

Almost collapsing in relief Mulder grinned.

"Really?" He gasped, not quite believing it.

"Really." Charlie confirmed. " You treat her with respect and you do it with obvious affection and care. I've noticed that though you act as though you're guiding her by putting your hand on her back, you're actually letting her take the lead. I like that, shows respect and care at the same time, and to be honest I'm amazed she lets you do it, when we were kids she always treated that kind of gesture with scorn. Same with men opening doors for her, but she lets you do that too. Look, basically, I think your good for her so, hey, welcome to the family."

He held out his hand. Hesitantly Mulder took it, and the two men shook hands, Charlie clasping Mulder's arm with his free hand and beaming at him.

"Now, come on, time for breakfast. This lot are voracious, if we don't get in there now there won't be anything left!"