Author's Note: In honor of mother's day, here's to Maggie Scully. Thanks for reading and to my beta IAmLoisLane for her on-the-go beta-ing skillz. As always, let me know what you think :) Pretty please?

Scully tried to comprehend what her mother was saying on the phone, but was distracted as Mulder suddenly swung the car into a gas station.

"Mulder, what are you—yeah, hang on, Mom." Scully covered the phone with her hand and looked at Mulder curiously. "What are you doing?"

"Gas. We need it. We need to get—"

"We've got half a tank."

"Huh?" Mulder asked, but then got out of the car before Scully had time to repeat herself.

Scully tilted her head, her brow wrinkling, but snapped out of her confused trance when she heard her mother call her. "Dana? Hello? Hello, Dana?"

"Yes, Mom, I'm sorry," Scully apologized. "I'm in Florida on a case."

"I'm sorry to bother you at work, but I haven't been able to reach you at home."

"Yeah… It was a busy weekend."

"Okay, well, I was just checking on you so I'll let you and Mulder get back to—"

"I have a minute."

"Oh, okay," Maggie said. "How is everything?"

Scully chuckled. "It's okay to just ask me, Mom."

"Ask you what?" Maggie questioned with an unusual tone that Scully couldn't quite place.

"About Nathan," Scully said with rising suspicion.

"Who?" Maggie asked.

Exactly. Scully chuckled.

"Oh, Nathan Riley, you mean," Maggie concluded. "That's right, you two had a second date on Friday evening, didn't you?"

Scully narrowed her eyes and glanced out the back car window. Her mom was acting weird… and so was her partner. She watched Mulder stand at the gas pump and pretend to pump gas. At least, that's what she decided he must be doing. The nozzle was still in the car, but the dials had long since stopped moving.

"Mom, why are you acting so strange?"

"Strange? Dana, I'm fine."

"Really? Because last week, after one date, you asked me if Nathan was a man I could see myself marrying… and today you can't even remember him."

"I don't want to pressure you, that's all."

Scully smiled. "Of course you do."

"No, really—"

"And, it's okay. It's your job as the mother of a single woman in her thirties to-"

"Dana, listen to me. If you want to stay single for the rest of your life, you have my approval."

"I wouldn't say that's necessarily a specific life goal of mine."

"And, if you want to be with Nathan, that's certainly wonderful news."

Scully opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't know exactly what news she was breaking… much less how to break it.

"But, Sweetheart, if there's someone else you would rather be with… I just want you to know… it's not like I expect you to marry a doctor. My only requirement is that you pick someone who makes you happy."

Scully rolled her eyes, but deep down she was reassured by her mother's words. Even when she'd fought against it, her parents' opinions of her choices had always weighed heavily on her. With her father, it had mostly been his disappointment over her chosen career path that gnawed at her even after his death. Her mother, on the other hand, was nonjudgmental by nature. All of her children were vastly different, yet no one would ever accuse her of having a favorite. So Scully was already really aware that her mother would never criticize any choice she made regarding a romantic relationship. Still, it was nice to hear it out loud. It was also nice to be supported and loved so unconditionally.

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, Dana," Maggie said then added, "and send Fox my love as well."

Fox. Scully chuckled. "Sure. Bye."

When Scully hung up the phone, she noticed Mulder was still staring at the gas pump. She leaned across the driver's seat and knocked on the window. Mulder finally hung up the nozzle and hopped in the car. He put his hands on the steering wheel and stared ahead.

"My mother said to send her love," Scully said lightly.

"Look, Scully, before you say anything else… I'm sorry."

Scully cocked her head to the side.

"In my defense, though, I was drugged… and handcuffed to the bed."

Scully started piecing this together with her mother's awkward tone, and suddenly she started to get worried. Surely, this wasn't all related.

"When the phone rang, I answered it. I didn't even imagine it would be anyone other than you… much less, your mother.'

Scully let out a small sigh and braced herself for the rest of Mulder's confession.

"If I had known it was her, I certainly wouldn't have mentioned being in your bed… much less being handcuffed to it. And, you know, in retrospect, a joke about you coming back with the key was probably a bad idea without confirming it was actually you on the phone."

And there it was. No wonder her mother was giving her permission to be with non-doctor types. It wasn't a general sort of go-ahead at all; it was a very specific stamp of approval.

"I tried to play it off as a gag, but I don't know if she bought it." Mulder turned to look at Scully for the first time. She was surprisingly mellow. "Or… did she believe me?"

"I'm pretty sure she knows we're not… involved, if that's what you mean."

"But does she know we're not doing the Devil's dirty dance every Saturday at noon?"

Scully laughed. "Where do you get these euphemisms, Mulder?"

Mulder smiled and shrugged. "I guess they just… come… to me."

Scully fought off a laugh. She refused to reward him for a pun like that.

"Seriously, though, Scully… you're not mad at me?"

"Well," Scully began, feeling guilty for tricking Mulder into a confession, "my mother didn't mention anything about you… my bed… or the handcuffs."

Mulder scoff-chuckled. Damn. "So you gave me just enough rope to hang myself with, huh?"

"At least now I know what prompted her phone call."

Mulder's eyebrows went up with curiosity. "Why? What did she say?"

"Actually—"

"Oh, Dana, dear," Mulder impersonated her mother in a voice that was less Maggie Scully and more Mrs. Doubtfire, "You're not letting that Fox fellow dip his wick in the company ink, are you? Because, while he is incredibly handsome… I think he may also be completely nuts."

"Mulder," Scully said through the laughter she couldn't stop, "Why does my mother sound like a perverted Irish nun from Wisconsin?"

"And while they say the crazy ones are great in the sack," Mulder continued in the ridiculous voice, "I'd prefer my eleven grandchildren to be fathered by someone who doesn't chase aliens for a living. Oh, which, by the by, reminds me… how was your second date with the perfectly perfect Dr. Nathan?"

"Who?" Scully asked as she tried to keep a straight face. It didn't work.

Mulder watched her laugh. They rarely slipped into the silly so it was an extra special treat to see her face flushed from the amusement of a moment he'd created. She was so, so beautiful like this. He'd never wanted her more.

"She's happy you like Dr. Riley, isn't she?" Mulder asked, sobering to a reality he needed to force himself to face.

"She just wants me to be with someone who makes me happy."

"And Nathan Riley's that guy. I mean, she really hit it out of the park with this one, didn't she?"

"I don't know," Scully said. "It's like you said before… there's compatibility… and then there's complementary. I'm starting to think maybe the former isn't as important as I've always made it… or as satisfying as I'd always imagined."

"So what you're saying is that in Scully's Hierarchy of Needs and Wants… your bathtub is still ahead of Nathan Riley."

"I think what I'm saying is there may be a lot of things still ahead of Nathan Riley."

"Flukeman?"

Scully laughed and reached over to place her hand lightly on Mulder's shoulder then told him, "Even you're ahead of the Flukeman, Mulder." Way, way ahead. In fact, he was way, way ahead of pretty much everything and everyone on any list of her "needs and wants," but she certainly wasn't going to bring that up.

"A notch above the Flukeman, huh?" Mulder joked. "Well, I guess it's a start."