thank you so much for the kind reviews. they are what speed this story along. I just love reading them, they are always so encouraging. thank you all again!

~August 4, 1994 (22 weeks)~

"Mommy, it's all fuzzy. Are you sure there's a baby in there?" Anna asked in disbelief. Her day at school had ended not long ago, and she and Scully were sitting at the kitchen counter looking over the ultrasound Scully had received that afternoon. She didn't understand what her mother was chuckling about. She didn't know Mulder said the exact same thing every time she went for an ultrasound.

"Yes, see that curved line right there? That's the head. That little bump is the nose."

"Is that other line its belly?"

"Very good honey."

"It's got a big belly."

"The baby's a little funny-looking now, but once it gets older, it'll look more like a normal baby."

"Mommy, is this baby a boy or a girl baby?" Anna wanted to know. It wasn't the first time she'd asked that question. At first, Scully didn't want to know the sex of her baby. She was happy with whatever it happened to be, as long as it was healthy. But try as she might, as the ultrasounds went on, she could not help herself from distinguishing the sex organs. Though she'd had an idea, Dr. Marsak had confirmed today that the baby was indeed a little girl.

"Well… I was going to wait until Mulder got home to tell you…"

"Mommy, you know I can handle it," Anna said, trying to sound grown-up. That earned another laugh from her mother and a wet kiss on the forehead.

"I think you can too. Alright honey… Mommy's having a baby girl."

Anna's face lit up right away. It had been no secret that a girl was what she had been rooting for. She was the typical little girl, and she had expressed the need for someone to play dolls and dress up with her on a regular basis since she found out her mom could be carrying either. If Scully didn't know better, she would say that Anna's willpower alone had been responsible for determining the sex of the baby. She hoped she wouldn't get too upset when she realized it would be awhile before the baby was able to play dress up or dolls.

"YAY!" she jumped off the stool and started running around. This earned a rouse out of Sadie, who began chasing her and yelping. Scully was so relieved to see that her oldest child had warmed up to the idea of having a little brother or sister. It was Mulder's brilliance that finally had her coming around, though. He'd suggested that she be the one to break the news to her extended family (who had already been told, so it wasn't a surprise), her ballet teacher, and her friends. Hearing how excited everyone would get once she gave them the news had the effect of making Anna excited as well. Now, more than a month after they had first told her, the little girl was very okay with the new addition to their family.

But Scully was secretly relieved that it turned out to be a girl she was carrying.

"Sadie, Mommy's having a girl baby! No smelly boys!" the little girl hugged her dog around the neck. Scully was having such fun watching her daughter's excitement that she didn't notice Mulder walk in the room.

"Hey, I'm a smelly boy," he said, shocking the two women. He always picked the absolute best days to come home early. The cat was out of the bag, and as Anna hurled herself toward him, Scully could see his smile getting wider.

"No you're not. You're Mulder."

"Oh, I see."

"Did Mommy tell you that she's going to have a girl?"

"No, but I see she told you."

"I'm happy."

"That's so great. I'm happy too," he said, looking directly at Scully. Maybe it was her pregnancy in general, but she seemed to be glowing. She was so beautiful and undoubtedly the best mother in the world.

"I can feel you thinking," Mulder finally said at 12:24 that night after laying next to her for quite some time as she pretended to sleep. What she didn't know was that if she couldn't sleep, he couldn't sleep. Just another one of those weird bonds they shared.

"I'm sorry. Just going over baby names with myself."

"I see. Now that we know we can stop considering those smelly boy names."

Scully chuckled slightly as she rolled over to face him. Mulder took this as a perfect opportunity to place his hand on her round baby belly. Earlier that week, he'd been able to feel the baby move for the first time. It felt like a little fish was swimming around inside of his best friend. Ever since, he'd been looking for excuses to touch Scully and to feel that again. Now he knew it was his little girl in there, he was more eager to feel her again.

"She's asleep. You know, that's how it works. Whenever I'm trying to sleep, she's up and moving. Whenever she's trying to sleep, I can't," Scully explained. Mulder did not remove his hand from her stomach, though.

"So what have you been thinking so far? I don't want this little one to think her name is 'her' or 'she' or any other pronoun."

"Well I'm having real trouble. Everything I'm coming up with just doesn't feel right. I have a few that I like, but I don't feel passionately about them."

"How did you pick out Anna's name?" Mulder wanted to know.

"It's different with your first baby, Mulder. All my dolls were named Anna growing up; I always knew if I had a daughter, her name would be Anna."

Mulder was a bit surprised. Both Scully and the rest of her family had gone on and on to him about how much of a tomboy young Dana had been. And here she was, telling him she had known what she would name her daughter since she could name her dolls. It baffled him.

"Just tell me what you have so far."

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"Scully, in case you haven't noticed, I haven't ever thought about what I would name a child of mine at all. So you're already a few steps ahead of me," he told her, but her skeptical gaze remained. "Alright, I promise."

"Okay, well there's Sarah. But I have a cousin named Sarah and she's… 'not a good Christian woman,' as Mom would say."

"Then Sarah's out."

"And Jennifer. I don't think 'Jennifer Mulder' sounds very good, though."

She must have noticed the change in his breathing when she implied that her baby would have his last name. They'd never talked about it before, and Mulder wasn't expecting her to tell him in this way.

"Then there's Chelsea, Olivia, and Ashley, but none of those sound right either," she closed her eyes painfully, "I was thinking maybe… Samantha?" she asked it as a tiny question. In reality, it was huge.

"I appreciate it, Scully, but I don't think I want our daughter to be named Samantha," Mulder told her regretfully, "I just never want to feel that way about my own child. And I don't want to give up hope for my sister either."

Scully understood perfectly well why Mulder didn't want their child to be named after the sister that was abducted from his care more than 20 years ago now. But she had to ask. Because she knew it would mean something to him.

"I'm all out of names then."

Mulder took time to consider each of the names she had chosen very carefully. He knew that for every name she said, there were probably several more that she didn't say. There was one similarity amongst all of them, though, and that was the fact that they were all clean-cut, apple pie and Chevrolet American names. He expected nothing less from Scully. Her mother and father had done the same thing; she had grown up in a very normal household. And despite their very… original… household, she wanted to recreated that same atmosphere within her own family. And there was nothing wrong with that.

The way she wanted to pay tribute to Samantha was still touching his heart. If there was one thing in the world he wanted to give her, it was the satisfaction of knowing she had merged what he desperately missed as a child and the life they shared together now. That she provided everything he needed; that there were many ways she could make him happy. His over-active mind began to think of ways to honor Samantha in a different way, and Scully's dolls reminded him of something. He remembered that Sam owned two dolls in her short life. Clara was the doll she'd received from their neighbor at the time of her birth. Clara's life had met a tragic end when she was thrown in the muddy creek running through the edge of their backyard, courtesy of Mulder himself. Five-year-old Samantha had cried for days, leaving her older brother feeling so guilty that he used all of his saved allowance to buy her another doll. Emily. Emily was still sitting on the bed in Samantha's old room in Chilmark, in a house that nobody had bothered to pretend to be happy in since she was gone. His estranged father lived there now, mostly in his downstairs office with a bottle of scotch he remembered from his last visit nearly 10 years ago. He knew without a doubt that Emily was still up in Sam's room, waiting for her to come back.

"What about Emily?" he asked with a wavering voice. Scully looked down at his hands, still resting on her stomach, contemplating.

"I like it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I do. I like it a lot."

"Do you hear that sweetheart?" Mulder asked, talking to the baby, "Daddy did something right for a change."

"Oh stop," Scully ruffled his hair. They argued like a married couple, people had told them on various occasions.

"So, can I start calling her Emily?"

"Not yet. We have to think of a middle name."

"Are you serious?"

"I am. Now start thinking, name genius."

"I don't know, just make it 'Marie' like every other woman on this Earth's."

"My middle name isn't Marie. In fact, I was thinking, actually, Anna's middle name is 'Margaret' after my mother—"

"No," Mulder stopped her before she could continue.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say."

"Yes I do. And we are not naming her after my mother. We are not."

"I was thinking that it would help her to accept her once she's born. I mean, this will be her only grandchild."

"Absolutely not. I don't need to make accommodations for my mother to 'warm up' to my child. If she doesn't want to be in her life, that's her decision."

"But doesn't it make you sad that your daughter will only have one set of grandparents?"

"Not in the least. In fact, I'd rather she only know your mom and dad. That way, she won't be so heartbroken when she realizes what mine are like."

"My mom and dad aren't going to be around forever, Mulder."

"Why are you so concerned about this, Scully? I mean, have you forgotten the one and only time you met my mother? She accused you of being a freeloader."

"That was a long time ago, Mulder. And I'll tell you something else—my dad's parents did not approve of his marriage to my mother. Her family didn't have as much money as his… whatever. But he married her anyway. And they didn't speak until I was 13-years-old. Then a few years later they both died. I just remember being a little girl wondering why my grandparents didn't like me. I thought it was my fault. I know that I let Anna down in that respect, but I really want this baby to experience what I didn't get to," Scully narrated. Mulder was hesitant to point out that sometimes no relationship with grandparents was better than a toxic relationship. His father's father had been dead long before Mulder was born, but his wife was a mean and bitter old woman. Her only concern had been for her money. She often looked upon Mulder and his sister with disgust—they were just the greedy children who would inherit her money after she died. Mulder had always felt hated when he was around her. He had no doubt that she had hated him.

But one look into Scully's eyes and he could not tell her his experiences. He could not let her down, not with this, something that she felt so strongly about, even after making a decision that would counteract her plans with her first daughter. He knew that soon, he'd have three sets of Scully eyes looking up at him expectantly, and he wondered how thin he could stretch himself. There was no way he was going to be able to deny them anything.

"Scully," he sighed, "I'll try. I'm not promising anything, but I will try to reconcile with at least my mother."

"I will be there to help you."

"Just… please, don't give her my mother's name. I don't want her to be connected in that way if it doesn't work out."

"Alright. Emily Teena doesn't go together anyway."

"What about something that sounds similar?"

"Like…"

"Christina."

"It still doesn't fit."

"Christine, then."

Scully was silent for a moment, and he knew she was testing the name on her tongue. Emily Christine Mulder. Oh God. It was beautiful.

"That's a far cry from Teena," she finally told him.

"But," Mulder insisted. He knew how much he liked the name.

"The names go well together. Actually, it feels right. Like it's been her name all along and now she's just finding a way to tell us."

"Spooky."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, Mulder, but I think you just named our child."

Mulder's entire face lit up when she said that, and he enveloped her into a giant hug. A few kisses were even planted here and there, and it had been a long time since they had done anything but sleep next to each other in that bed.

"Well, you got to name the dog," he pointed out. Scully laughed a small laugh, but now that she was finally content about their daughter's name, she was finding it hard to keep her eyes open. They fluttered; Mulder could feel her eyelashes on his bare chest.

Within minutes, as both were drifting off to sleep, Emily Christine Mulder was beginning to wake up in her mother's womb.