Luiza-I'm sure a town like this would have quite the booming business;)
Green-Thanks so much for your reviews—they are much appreciated.
Ch 15
Before Scully's eyes could open fully against the morning light, her husband already had her nightgown pushed up over her hips speaking sweetly to her flat belly between fits of excited kisses and silly nuzzling.
"Hey buddy, it's your Dad," Mulder cooed to Scully's tummy. "You're a lot smaller now than the last time I saw you," he teased, finally eliciting a chuckle from his wife.
"You sound a little nuts, you know," Scully mused.
"I don't care," he mumbled to her abdomen, making ticklish kisses in his wake.
"You're sure, Mulder?" Scully questioned, in awe at the possibility she could really be pregnant.
Closing his eyes as his lips dropped once more to his wife's porcelain skin, Mulder breathed deeply before raising his head to meet her gaze once more.
"Yeah," Mulder nodded his head with certainty, "I'm sure…."
Xxx
Four weeks later
Walter Skinner returned from vacation knowing full-well what to expect once he opened that basement-office door. The hinges squeaked from disuse as he pushed the door open into the darkened office. Opening the desk drawer, he found the badges and service revolvers he'd expected to find. Flicking open the catch on the file cabinets, he noted the files all in order and accounted for, though he knew damn well Mulder and Scully had copied everything that they might need. He had to chuckle at the bare spot on the wall where Mulder's UFO poster had once lived, and even as he stood there in the silence, a yellow pencil gave up its purchase on the ceiling tiles and tumbled down to land at his feet.
He knew at their last meeting before he took his annual leave that Mulder and Scully had been acting a bit more unusual, even for them. Mulder, more protective and territorial than normal; Scully looking at her partner with an open adoration that she rarely allowed herself in the past—the agents' last assignment had clearly wrought a great change in their relationship.
He hated losing the two agents most adept at dealing with the threats facing them just a few years down the road (though he would have never openly admitted that to another soul). Skinner knew that when the time came, Mulder and Scully would be the first to lead the charge and the last to succumb to defeat.
When he'd left a week ago Friday, he saw the shiny tears in Scully's eyes that threatened to fall as she hugged him; and the pleading uncertainty that shone in Mulder's face, wishing that he could tell Skinner of their plans, but in his saddened wisdom, Skinner just shook his head no, knowing the less he knew, the better for them all.
An insistent buzzing issued from his pocket. Skinner opened the disposable phone to read the text.
Sorry the Mrs. and I had to take off so quick. We jumped the first plane we could as soon as the vacation was over. Mom's on her way to help with the rug rat.
The Mrs. is talking about getting another dog… but I told her no lazy hounds or yappy dust mops—we need a dog that will let you know when the bad guys come creeping around, but will love your kid;)
Gotta start unpacking. I'm sure the Mrs. will have me move the sofa fifteen times before I get it right.
We'll phone home when we can, The Browns
Skinner chuckled at Mulder's convoluted message, though to the unwitting eye, it would just seem like an off-hand goodbye from a random friend or relation. Thank goodness for his 8th grade typing teacher.
He smiled his confirmed suspicions, Scully was indeed pregnant, and she and Mulder had married. He also gave a relieved sigh to know that Maggie would soon be joining them-she was far too easy a target to remain in D.C.
He wished the little family well as he erased the message, knowing that the phone would soon need to disappear in some unfortunate accident. Damn…and he had just figured that one out, too…
In a last thought, Skinner bent down to pick the lock on Mulder's bottom drawer, and, sure enough, below some random photos and forgotten files were a few of those magazines that didn't really belong to Mulder, anyway.
"Well, it's not like he'll be needing them," Skinner rationalized to no one, slipping the magazine into his coat and turning off the light behind him.