CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Present day…

The X Files had officially been shut down for 8 months. After Mulder stopped checking in with Director Kersh, he took the opportunity to shut down their nuisance of a department. Agent Reyes had been assigned to hold down the fort during Mulder's absence but it slipped through her fingers when Mulder ceased contact. Kersh seemed elated to see the X Files gone but that didn't stop him from assigning one Agent Doggett to head a manhunt for Mulder.

Scully figured he just wanted to disappear. But no one else seemed to share her belief. Under Kersh's orders Agent Doggett heckled her with insistent questions about Mulder anyway.

Agent Reyes and Scully had become good friends, she always found herself down in that basement working part time helping her out.

To Mulder's ignorance, of course.

Scully rubs a hand down her face and sighs.

It was late.

It was really late and Scully still couldn't sleep. So she got up.

She put on her housecoat and headed out into the hallway. She pushed open her son's bedroom door and she slipped her head in. Her son was sound asleep on his stomach; his brown hair was sticking straight up which was just another thing that Dana Scully could not control.

The older he got, the more he looked like Mulder. He was tall and slender just like Mulder, he had brown hair just like Mulder, and William's eyes were so similar to Mulder's that it was almost, well, spooky.

Scully closed his door quietly and headed to her kitchen. She placed a kettle on her stove and waited for her water to boil. She slumped down into her kitchen chair and she rested her elbow on the table and pressed her forehead against her hand.

She was exhausted, she was lonely, she was miserable.

And it was her own fault.

Post partum depression hit her hard. Her mother had to come to live with her for the first few months. She couldn't get out of bed in the morning, she couldn't smile, she couldn't hold her baby, and she couldn't look at William without seeing Mulder.

She ached so terribly when he left. Her heart cringed in pain even at the thought of his name. Her misery was sent into overdrive after her son was born, her hormones threw her over the edge and she broke down.

When William was about 3 months old her mother moved out. Scully found herself able to pull herself out of bed, change a diaper, soothe a crying infant and even smile, but the ache never really went away.

Scully poured some hot water into her favorite mug and added a bag of chamomile tea.

A knock on her front door made her jump. Her neck snapped to the left to check the clock, it was 3:12am. What was someone doing knocking on her door at this hour?

There was only one person who would visit at this hour, but he was gone.

She grabbed her gun and clicked off the safety. She stood up on her toes to peer out the peephole in her door. She couldn't see anyone but she opened the door anyway and pointed the barrel of the gun directly in front of her before a hand reached around to grab hold of her doorframe.

"Scully," a raspy yet familiar voice breathed.

He took a step into her doorway, and even with the bushy facial hair, straggly locks, and a two-year absence, it was without a doubt Fox Mulder.

"Mulder?" she asked.

He stroked her cheek lightly before collapsing sideways onto the floor.


20 months ago…

Scully pulled herself up and out of her bed. It was after midnight, and Scully was exactly 9 months and 4 days pregnant. Her feet hurt unbearably and her back was killing her. Her child was wreaking havoc on her joints but it didn't even begin to compare to the harassment her bladder was enduring.

This was the third trip to the bathroom already tonight and before she even reached her toilet she felt a gush of liquid between her legs. Scully sighed and for the first time in the last 5 months she was glad she was alone, because at least there was no one to witness her embarrassing feat.

She looked down at the liquid puddled at her feet and realized that it wasn't urine, as she had originally assumed, but rather amniotic fluid.

Her water broke.

She grabbed two towels from her hallway closet and placed them onto the floor to absorb up the mess. She went back to her bedroom to grab a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

She peeled off her wet and soiled garments and climbed into her shower. The warm water rushed over her and she rinsed off all the evidence that the towels on her floor still contained.

She dried herself off and pulled on her clean clothes. She was combing her hair when she had her first contraction. And she panicked.

She fumbled for her cell phone and dialed a familiar number. A number which she wasn't expecting an answer.

"The number you have reached is currently out of service, any message recorded will be delivered to the intended recipient once they relocate within the boundaries of their service provider," the automated voice informed her.

She ignored the message and awaited the voice she was so desperate to hear.

"You have reached Fox Mulder, please leave a message and I'll get back to you."

-Beep-

"Mulder, its me. My water broke…please pick up the phone. Please. Please come back. Please come get me."

Scully waddled over to her couch and sat down. "Mulder I don't want to do this by myself. I'm scared to give birth."

She felt another small contraction and she gripped the phone tighter. "I'm sorry I didn't stop you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you how I felt about you. I was just angry and confused and I made a mistake."

"The baby's coming, and it hurts."

"Mulder. Please come back. Please don't make me do this by myself."

"I can't do this without you."

"I love you."