Denny's was definitely not Mulder's favorite place to eat, but it's the place that the guests of honor had requested, so there they were. Just the five of them, about to have a conversation that he was ridiculously nervous about.
Chill out, he told himself. It's not as though they're going to try to talk you out of it. But somehow, even knowing this, he was still battling butterflies that had taken on Mothra proportions in his poor guts.
"Denny's is my favorite place," Tommy said cheerfully, completely unaware of Mulder's nerves.
"Your favorite place ever?" Scully teased. If she was even half as nervous as her fiancé she hid it enviably well, in Mulder's opinion.
"Well, I like the Bronx Zoo better, but you don't eat there. 'cept the cafeteria and the candy machines."
"And soda," Grace added.
"You don't eat soda, Grace," Tommy corrected automatically.
"Uh huh-"
"Hey!" Mulder said to get their attention, and then was at a loss for words when he actually had it.
Scully reached over and put a hand on his. "Mulder and I wanted to talk to you both about something."
"What?" both kids predictably asked.
"Have you noticed your mom's new ring?" Mulder asked.
Tommy shook his head but Grace nodded. "It makes rainbows!"
He was slightly baffled until Scully said, "Oh yes, it reflected light onto the wall, didn't it?"
"I want to see," Tommy immediately announced.
Scully held up her hand, and he looked disappointed. "Sorry kiddo. the light's wrong for that here."
"Aww man."
"Do either of you know what kind of ring this is?" Mulder asked them.
"Pretty!"
Tommy tilted his head. "Diamond. Or, Mommy, what's fake diamond like in the ads during gramma's shows? Q-Bert D-Con?"
Mulder bit the inside of his cheek so he didn't embarrass himself by giggling. All he could do for a moment was picture the little orange video game character hopping around and poisoning rodents.
"It is diamond," Scully told them. "But that's not what Mulder meant."
"What he meant?" Grace asked.
"This type of ring is called an engagement ring-"
Tommy stood up abruptly. "You're getting married?!"
"We're getting married," Mulder agreed and swallowed hard. "What do you think of that?"
The boy thought for a moment. "I think it's cool."
"You do?" Mulder asked, trying to fight down the urge to ask him if him marrying Scully was okay with him.
"Yeah," Tommy said with a definitive nod of his head. "What took you so long?"
Mulder and Scully were both immediately flustered, but they looked away and regained their composure.
It turned out that his question was either rhetorical or he simply decided that they weren't going to answer, because he asked another question instead. "When are you getting married?"
"Actually, we're not sure yet."
"You haven't picked a date?"
Scully stared at him. "How do you know about picking a date?" She shook her head. "Never mind: grandma."
"I like the movie we watched about the lady who moved back home and got married to a tree seller guy at Christmas. Her first boyfriend wasn't good enough for her, like Grandma said."
Mulder shot Scully a look. "Is he describing the plot of a Lifetime movie?"
She sighed. "More than likely." Refocusing, she gave her son a faint smile. "But to answer your question, yes. We haven't picked a date quite yet."
"Okay." The little boy thought for a moment. "Is Mulder going to live at our house? Or are we gonna live at his?"
"Uh..." Mulder stammered. "Neither, actually. We're going to buy a house."
"Tomorrow?" Grace asked, giving them a curious look.
Both the adults laughed. "Oh no, we can't buy a house tomorrow. It takes a long time to buy a house. A really long time."
"Okay good," the small redhead remarked. "We have cupcakes for snack tomorrow."
"Why does it take a long time?" Tommy wanted to know. "My friend Nicky's dad bought a car last week and it only took like five hours."
"Houses are different because they cost a lot more," Scully replied.
"They do?"
Mulder was distracted for a moment, imagining the five of them living in a big RV. He wondered if they could buy one in five or so hours. Probably not.
"Yes. You could fill the whole driveway with cars for the price of a house."
"Huh." Tommy finally sat back down. "Are we gonna have our own rooms?"
"I hope so," Mulder told him. "But wanting a house with four bedrooms is one of the things that'll make it take a long time. And being in the right place, so Mom doesn't need to drive really far to work, will too."
"Why four bedrooms?" Tommy asked.
"One for Mom and me, one for you, one for Grace, and one for Christian."
"What about our little brother or sister?" Tommy asked. "You know, the new baby someday."
"What are you talking about?" Scully asked, looking surprised.
Tommy seemed confused by the question. "Jamie's mom married his stepdad and then Jamie got a baby sister. And after Caleb's dad married his new stepmom he got a baby brother. And then Emma-"
"Not all couples that get married have a baby, Tommy," Mulder said quietly when he noticed that Scully's face had blanched. He tried to remind himself that very small children have fixed beliefs about what adulthood is like, and remembered being about Tommy's age when he finally understood that not all adults had a spouse or children.
"Oh." Tommy immediately switched gears. "When we have our new rooms can we get wide screen pillows like you have, Mulder?"
Scully repeated "wide screen pillows" with a baffled look.
Turning to her, Mulder grinned. "He's talking about king size pillows. They're a lot longer than standard size."
"Ah."
"You sure can," Mulder promised his soon-to-be stepson. "Maybe bigger beds, too."
Tommy looked alarmed. "But I like my bed."
"Okay...maybe not bigger beds."
"And we can call you Dad then, right?" Tommy asked.
"Yes." Mulder found his eyes tearing up. "You can."
"He's Mulder!" Grace insisted.
"I know, but we can call him Dad," Tommy said.
"Why?"
"Because he'll be our dad!"
Grace gave Mulder an interested look. "You're dad?"
"Yeah, Grace, I am."
Scully was tearing up too. Fortunately, their food appeared just then, before there was any crying.
The original plan had been to tell Maggie, Skinner, and the lone gunmen all at once that weekend during an informal party, but the boys had been away at a convention, so they'd told Maggie and Skinner separately. Maggie had cried happily, and Skinner had told Mulder not to even think about suggesting a double wedding with mock sternness.
They'd been engaged nearly two weeks by the time the gunmen arrived at Mulder's apartment.
When they arrived, Langly was holding a very large lidded pot. "I brought the spaghetti," he announced, handing the vessel to Mulder.
"Okay...when we said to come over for a spaghetti dinner, we weren't trying to imply that you needed to bring the spaghetti," Mulder said, taking it from him. It was very warm, and he quickly bunched up his shirt around the twin handles.
"I know. I've had your spaghetti, Mulder. This is better, trust me."
"Right."
Byers waved a bag from the bakery. "Your breadsticks aren't very good either."
Frohike, who was trailing behind him empty-handed, just shrugged.
"Who's that?" a young voice asked from behind Mulder. He turned to see Scully with both of the kids.
"Tommy, these are Mulder's friends." Scully told him. "It's been a while but you've met them before."
"Oh." If Tommy remembered them at all, he gave no indication.
"Thank you for joining us for dinner," Scully told the guys.
"Welcome," Langly replied.
"What can we do to help you get everything ready?" Byers asked the couple politely, nudging the other gunmen when they didn't seem inclined to follow his lead.
"How about you entertain the kids?" Mulder suggested. He frowned at Scully's mildly alarmed expression.
"Sounds good," Frohike said gruffly. Turning to Tommy and Grace, he asked, "What do you guys know about ley lines?"
Half an hour later they were all seated at Mulder's table. It was the first time he'd ever placed the leaf into it - up until then it had been stuffed into a closet. Scully had brought a couple of extra chairs over earlier in the day because his dining set didn't have enough.
Mulder waited until everyone had a full plate in front of them - including Christian who wasn't allowed to grab it with both hands like he desperately wanted to - before speaking. "I suppose you wonder why we asked you over tonight?" he prompted, trying to distract his son with a swirl of pasta.
"Uh, kinda," Langly admitted. "You haven't been the most social since you've, um, gotten back." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, giving away his nerves as much that way as by 'um' and 'uh'ing.
Mulder raised an eyebrow before picking up Scully's hand and showing it to them. She let him because he'd talked to her about show and tell for dramatic effect in advance.
"No!" Frohike gasped.
"Woah, you didn't." Langly looked suitably impressed.
Byers smiled at them. "I guess congratulations are in order."
"Congratulations?" Frohike mumbled. "Dana, I had no idea that you were so desperate. Ow!" he complained when he failed to dodge Langly's elbow.
"Knock it off, troll."
"I'm just saying that I would-"
"Have continued to stare longingly at her for another decade or two?" Langly asked snidely.
Frohike looked to Byers for support, but the other man just shook his head slowly. "Fine," Frohike said flatly. "Congratulations."
"Mulder's gonna be our dad," Tommy informed them.
"That'll be interesting," Langly said, but his voice held none of the bitterness that Frohike's did. "My stepdad was pretty great, so I'm sure you'll like Mulder as yours."
Dana looked interested. "I didn't know you had a stepfather."
"Oh, sure. My dad died when I was three. Gary was awesome, though. He married my mom when I was five."
Tommy's eyes lit up. "I'm five!"
"That's awesome, little dude."
"I'm three," Grace announced, not to be left out.
"Also awesome."
"When's the wedding," Byers asked, clearly trying to get the conversation back on track.
"We were thinking late summer," Scully confided.
"So soon?" Frohike asked. "What's wrong with a long engagement?"
Byers ignored him. "Will you and the kids be moving in-"
She cut him off. "We're going to live separately until we buy a house." She gave an unhappy smirk. "Two leases."
"Ah. Well, summer is sooner than you'd think from all the snow outside right now."
"Hey, does anyone else wonder if that whole Song of Fire and Ice series is taking forever to finish up because the writer doesn't know how he's going to write about the long winter? 'Winter is coming.' Yeah, right. The guy's from New Jersey, so even if he has lived in New Mexico forever he should know about enduring snow-"
"Langly," Byers chided.
"Right."
Mulder cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Or at least the gunmen's given that the kids were finally concentrating on eating and hadn't even noticed. When the three men were looking at him, he said, "We have one other important piece of news to share."
"What's that?" Frohike asked suspiciously.
Before his friend could begin to make guesses, Mulder said, "My friend Danny did a DNA test, and the fears we had about non-terrestrial DNA were unfounded." Before Tommy could look up, he mouthed 'please don't mention aliens' and they nodded.
"Well, that's good news," Byers said. "Any idea about the maternal DNA?" he asked, indicating that he at least was aware of the little ears listening. Of course, knowing Scully's children, there were no guarantees that they wouldn't ask what the obfuscated terms meant.
Mulder leaned forward. "There is none."
"What do you mean, there is none?" Langly demanded to know. "That's not possible."
He shook his head. "The test was run more than once - he only has one person's DNA. Mine."
For several seconds there was a shocked silence. Then Byers said "wow" and Langly gave a low whistle.
"So what you're saying is the sprog is your xerox?" Frohike asked, using a breadstick as a pointer.
"Yes, basically."
"Poor Kit," Langly said mournfully.
"What?" Mulder demanded to know.
"I'm just saying it's going to be hard on the little guy to be his own man when he's more or less you in miniature."
"Not that," Mulder said impatiently. "What did you call him?"
"Kit." Langly looked down his nose at him. "That's a baby fox, you know."
"Oh, God," Mulder groaned.
"What?" Langly asked defensively. "You haven't come up with a better nickname, have you?"
He was about to open his mouth and protest that Kit was the second-to-last thing he'd want them to call his child (after Fox junior) when Grace jumped out of her seat ran to the baby boy in the high chair and tried to hug him. "Kit! You're my kit now." She turned and beamed at her father. "Like a kitten, right, Mulder?"
"Go ahead, Mulder," Frohike offered with a nasty smirk. "Tell her that's not going to be his nickname now."
"I think it's cute, Mulder," Scully said quietly, and she didn't look away when he gave her a betrayed look. "As a nickname. He might not want to be 'Kit' when he's twenty-seven."
"I don't really want him to be Kit now," Mulder muttered. Fortunately when he looked down at Grace it was obvious that she was no longer paying attention. Instead she was tickling the baby's feet and making him laugh in that wet way very small children have.
"I don't care what Mulder calls him, he's going to be Kit," Frohike insisted. "At least until he's big enough to punch out people who use the name," he added, eyeing Mulder.
"I only punched you the once for calling me Fox," Mulder complained. "And I was drunk."
Frohike looked disgusted by that lame defense. "Oh, so that makes it better."
"Mulder, you were drunk?" Tommy asked, sounding like it was the most scandalous thing he ever heard in all five years of his life.
"It was a very long time ago. I'm reformed."
"Oh. Did you go to a special school?"
"Uh, no."
"Maybe we better finish eating before the food gets cold," Scully suggested.
They all worked on clearing their plates after that.
