XXXXX
Scully ran.
She ran as fast as her feet would her carry her. The tears were flowing from her eyes at an alarming rate, clouding her vision as she stumbled over the dark forest floor.
She made it back to the building just in time to be witness to the bright white light that illuminated the structure. It disappeared quickly. Grief constricted her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe. Her vision blurred. Her hope was diminishing. She opened the door that held the key to the rest of her life on the other side. The room was empty.
Scully collapsed down onto the ground, her hands encircling her abdomen as she fought desperately to maintain any sense of reality. It didn't work. The light in her eyes that had dimmed considerably in the past few months, went out completely. The darkness consumed her as she cried out in agony, waves of nausea assaulting her body. Her life was falling apart. It was shattering. Her life was no more. She didn't know how to live a life without the one thing that made it worthwhile. She couldn't live. She just couldn't do it without him.
XXXXX
[Mulder-Scully Residence
Mclean, Virginia
Tuesday, 3:48 AM]
Scully woke with a start, gasping for air. Her hands clawed at the sheets around her, not knowing what was real and what wasn't. Her fears quelled when she felt Mulder's arms pull her against him. She broke down and began to sob quietly into his chest, her hands coming up to his neck, trying to get him even closer to her than he already was. She tried to choke back her tears, but they wouldn't abate.
Mulder began to run his hands soothingly down his back and up into her hair. "Shh.. Scully whah's wrong?," he asked sleepily, but still concerned.
She couldn't manage to verbalize anything. She only squeaked in the midst of her tears.
He pulled her closer, tightening his grip around her, trying to calm her down.
She finally was able to find her voice after a few long minutes. "M- Mulder?," she choked out.
"It's okay. It's me. It's just me." He laid his cheek on the top of her head, continuing to rub his hand up and down her back. "You're- You're here? It was just a dream?" She swallowed harshly.
"It was just a dream," he confirmed, feeling her relax slightly against him.
"Oh, Mulder. It was so horrible." She buried her face into his neck and let our another small sob. "Y- You died. You went," she coughed, "missing and I couldn't find you and - and I- I was pregnant and I found you dead in the woods three months later." She started sobbing again. "I had to live without you and raise our baby without you. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it," she repeated over and over again, with a shaky voice.
Mulder rolled onto his right side, not letting go of Scully, and placed his hand on her stomach. He kissed her forehead. "It's okay, Scully. I'm right here. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. I'm never going to leave you or our kids. I promise. We're done chasing after monsters in the dark. We're both going to stay safe and raise our kids; and then we're both going to die when we're old and we're grey and not a second sooner."
She leaned her head up so that her watery eyes met his. "You promise?," she asked in a small voice.
"I promise, Scully," he answered. They both knew that the matters of life and death were not in their control, but it felt like a necessary thing to say- that no matter what, they were never going to voluntarily leave each other or their children.
He leaned down towards her and met her lips gently. She returned the gesture in kind.
The door to their room opened quietly. Scully sat up and wiped at her eyes, "What's wrong?," she asked worriedly as Em led Jacob by the hand over to Scully's side of the bed.
"We had a bad dream," Em and sweet quietly, dropping Jacob's hand and scrambling up onto the bed.
Mulder got up from his side, walked around to Scully's side, and picked Jacob up since he was too small to get up onto the bed all by himself. Mulder carried him back over to his side of the bed and laid back down, placing Jacob in between his body and Scully's.
"Do you remember what about?," Scully worried, tucking a strand of Em's hair behind her ear.
Em shrugged and cuddled into Scully's right side as they both laid back down. Mulder snaked his arm underneath all three of their heads and turned back onto his right side again. He laid his hand back onto Scully's stomach and leaned down to kiss Jacob's forehead.
XXXXX
[J. Edgar Hoover Building
Downtown, Washington DC
Tuesday, 10:03 AM]
"Good morning, agents. How's your last week going?," Skinner asked as he entered their office, taking note of the new decorative additions that were adorning the walls and desks: crayon drawings, photos of Em.. and another boy?, and one photo of all four of them together.
Scully huffed quietly in response to his question and turned around to put a stack of files back in a cabinet.
Skinner arched an eyebrow and looked to Mulder for an explanation for her behavior.
Mulder looked sheepish. "She's had a hard day. She doesn't like sending the kids to daycare," he explained to Skinner. 'It was true,' Mulder thought. She'd cried just as much today as she had yesterday morning, when she had to sign both of them into the daycare. She hadn't wanted to leave them, especially in the care of strangers.
Mulder's comment made Skinner puzzle slightly. "Kids?," he inquired suspiciously. 'This would probably explain who the boy in the pictures is.'
"Oh, right. You haven't met our son, yet.. have you?" Mulder asked naively. Scully slowly turned around to face Skinner and at least had the audacity to look slightly embarrassed at her immature reaction from earlier.
"No. No, I don't think I've had that pleasure," Skinner responded slowly, trying to figure out how to process the new information. He'd heard something about there being more than one child, but he hadn't believed it until now… Maybe the rumour mill deserved a little more credit than he gave it sometimes.
"His name is Jacob," Scully piped in, trying to get over her rotten mood. "He's almost two."
Skinner nodded, letting the new information wash over him and sink into his brain. "Well, my congratulations then…" He paused. "I just came down to wish you guys a happy last week. I put an order in for no fieldwork for you two, so you don't have to be worried about having to go out of town for your last last few days down here." He turned and started walking towards the door, but turned back around to face Mulder and Scully just before he exited. "I'm glad that you two are happy now, together, you deserve it." He walked out into the hallway.
"It took you guys long enough to get your acts together and realize you loved each other, though," they heard him call from somewhere in the hallway.
They both blushed. 'Had we really been that obvious to everyone else, yet so oblivious to each other?,' They both thought fleetingly.
XXXXX
[J. Edgar Hoover Building
Downtown, Washington DC
Tuesday, 4:47 PM]
Mulder and Scully were just walking down from the HR and records department and over to the child care center that was a few floors below. They had gone and updated their files- again. They both needed to change Em's last name on the records, add Jacob as their dependent child, and also change the both of their marriage statuses.
Scully's also put down 'Mulder' as he last name. She marveled at how it looked written down on paper for the first time. 'Dana Katherine Mulder,' it read. She loved it. It was fitting. It fit her. It fit their family. It was them. It was a symbol of them. Her reasoning behind doing it now was that everyone already thought they were married anyways, and that by the time anyone in the department noticed the new changes.. well, they'd already be married by then, so it wouldn't matter.
They reached the floor for the daycare. Walking up to the front desk, Mulder signed them out as Scully went back and grabbed them.
"Hi, my sweet babies," she cooed joyfully as she saw them ruNing towards her. She gave them both a kiss 'hello', picked Jacob up, and grabbed Em's hand. She began to walk them out towards the front desk.
Mulder smiled brightly when he saw them. "Hi, guys," he beamed. He bent down and picked Em up, since Scully was already holding Jacob. They began to walk to the elevator.
After they got into the elevator car and pressed the appropriate floor button, Mulder switched Em onto his other side and grabbed Scully's free hand out of a new comfortable familiarity.
The elevator stopped on the floor directly below the one they got on on. They both inwardly groaned when they realized who was about to join them and their temporary solitude. Pendrell.
"Hello, Dana," he greeted and flashed her a charming grin, completely ignoring Mulder and Em. He was also ignoring Jacob, which was pretty hard to do considering the fact that he was literally in her arms as he tried to flirt with her.
Scully rolled her eyes in disinterest and scooted closer to Mulder, attempting to send a final signal to Agent Pendrell that she was taken and would never, ever be available again in this lifetime.
Apparently, Pendrell either missed this signal, or was ignoring that, as well, in addition to her companions. "Would you like to go out for dinner and some dancing tonight, Dana?" He asked her politely with another smile and a set of puppy dog eyes.
Mulder scoffed at him in disgust, which Pendrell also ignored. 'This idiot has a lot of nerve. She's standing here with her children and her 'husband' and he's still trying to get her out on a date. What is wrong with him?'
Scully scooted slightly closer to Milder, again. Mulder took it as a sign that she would appreciate his overtly possessive tendencies at the moment. He snaked his arm around her waist, in between Jacob and herself. He yanked her closer and lightly laid his hand over her abdomen. 'If this isn't enough of a signal for him, then I don't know what is.'
Apparently, it still wasn't enough. "Dana?," Pendrell innocently inquired, trying to prod her along with making a decision.
There was no decision to make, however. Of course there wasn't a decision to make. "Mulder was hers. She was Mulder's. They had the the whole family dream: Big house, big yard, two and a half kids… all that they were missing was a dog… but they weren't quite ready for that responsibility, yet. "No, thank you, Pendrell. I'm sorry but I'm completely not interested. I'm happy with my husband and my children. And even if I weren't, I still wouldn't be interested.. in anyone… especially you."
Pendrell glared harshly at her and then looked up at Mulder, who was staring daggers into his very soul. Pendrell visibly shuddered slightly and backed up a small step against the elevator doors. The car dinged in warning, the doors were going to open back up soon. "Are- are you sure, Dana?," he queried, all of the hope newly missing from his voice.
"I'm sure, Pendrell," she said definitely as she reached her left arm around Mulder's waist, mimicking his possessive posture.
"Excuse us," Mulder said coldly as he surged forward, guiding them past a stunned Pendrell and outside of the elevator car doors. As they made it over to the bullpen, they didn't remove their hands from each other, they only tightened their grip on the other's respective waist.
"C'mon, Mulder," Scully said as she started to weave them through the throng of working agents, ignoring their comments and their stares. "Let's go pick up Michelle from the airport."
