From the safety of her white sofa Scully sips a cup of tea, as she watches snow fall outside her window. She listens to Mulder nearby as he babbles nearly unintelligibly to their most recent house guest. Scully's guilt rises as she's convinced she should be feeling overwhelming joy. A miracle baby, and reuniting with her soul mate. Beneath a fleece blanket somehow the whole scene feels like an albatross around her neck, instead of some great unburdening.

Fox enters the room with a ridiculous smile on his face. In his arms he holds a little one in a pink swaddle. He quietly takes a seat at the end of the couch. Scully peers down at her watch. She listens to the little one smacking her lips as she wriggles to get free of Mulder's grasp.

"I see the clock has struck milk maid o'clock, yet again," she comments with a begrudging tone.

"We have formula that the hospital sent home. I can make her a bottle."

"I'll take her."

He gently place the baby in her arms. She peers down at her perfect little girl. A pair of bright eyes peer back at her. Beneath a flowered cap is a spattering of red hair. Scully gently frees her daughter of the restraint Mulder has secured her in. Mulder remains steadfastly planted in his seat.

"I assure you that I can take it from here. You don't need to use kid gloves all the time, Mulder."

That night Mulder finds Scully in the nursery sitting in the rocking chair sobbing. Their daughter is sound asleep in her crib.

"Come on, let's get you to bed."

"Fine," she growls as he leads her out of the nursery.

She sits in their bed staring off into space as she applies hand lotion mindlessly.

"I need you to talk to me," his words cut through the silence like a razor.

Her head snaps in his direction. She exhales.

"Why is this so hard for me? I should be completely and totally euphoric. My pregnancy was completely without complication. Charlotte is perfectly healthy. Somehow I still can't help feeling overcome by despair."

"Dana it has a name, and you've been diagnosed."

"It doesn't do anything to alleviate the sinking feeling that it is a significant character flaw."

"It isn't a character flaw. It is called post-partum depression. I don't think that either of use expected to have a newborn at this stage of our lives. Anyone would have a hard time adjusting."

"Anyone would have expected you to struggle. You are the one who is motivated to search for the truth that is out there."

He gently tucks stray hair behind her ear. A reassuring grin meets her glance. "The truth is right down the hallway."

"Why does normal feel so…"

He cuts her off, "You feel suffocated, don't you? We've been at home with a baby for six weeks. There have been no x-files, or emergency calls from work. Scully if this is not the life that you see for yourself I understand. I am not here to chain you to archaic patriarchal gender roles."

"We agreed to a sabbatical," she prompts.

He squirms, "About that…"

She furrows her brow, "Is this where you tell me that you've gotten an alert about Big Foot in the Appalachian mountains, and that you are leaving in the morning despite the fact that Christmas is two days away?"

"I talked to Skinner yesterday."

Scully shakes her head, and her cheeks grow red, "I don't want to hear this, Mulder."

"Just listen. I talked to him about who I need to contact in order to access my pension."

She furrows her brow, "To what end?"

"It is something people refer to as retirement, Scully."

"What?!"

"I just want to stay home, and be here for our child."

"That flickering bulb in the bathroom was really you being abducted last night, wasn't it?"

He smiles, "No."

In his embrace she feels safe enough to reveal pieces of the truth, "Fox I sat in the rocking chair watching her lie in her crib doing nothing. The longer I sat there the more I started questioning everything. Will I wake up in the middle of the night to find that her mobile is spinning above her head seemingly on its own?"

"Do you recall in your second trimester when you sequenced her DNA yourself?"

"It would not be the first time…" she begins.

"I think if you could get some rest perhaps you would feel a little better in the morning."

"Perhaps everything that has happened in the past was to clearly communicate to me that I have no business being someone's mother. I just wasn't cut out for it."

He furrows his brow as he begins to rub her shoulders, "You were never given a fair shot at it before."

"Somehow I doubt that a backrub is going to mollify my fears about any of this."

"All of the feelings that you are having are valid. I cannot refute, or confirm any of the feelings you are sharing. You are not chained to any of this. You say the word, and you can have your life back. I will take Charlotte, and raise her in the cabin in the woods where she will be fully convinced she is actually a fairy. I will never judge you for any choices you make around our daughter."

Scully shakes her head, "You sound like a self-help book right now, Mulder."

"Oh, that reminds me… I may have done something you're really going to hate me for."

"A UFO conference? A weekend trip to Ontario? A sasquatch reunion?"

"Do you remember in preparing to go to the hospital you asked me to update your life insurance policy?"

"I seem to recall plenty of panic level anxiety surrounding the days leading up to our daughter's birth."

"I updated your policy on your laptop."

"Did you order something weird on my computer?"

"I noticed you had a document open, and initially I thought that was related to insurance. It was apparently something you've been working on in your spare time. I called an old friend of mine…"

"You don't have any friends," she jabs.

"An old acquaintance. Long story short you are supposed to be in New York on January 2nd for a book signing."

"Whose book signing?"

"Yours…" he grimaces.

She swats his hand away from her lower back, and spins in his direction.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"When you were signing insurance papers mindlessly while eating ice cream it is possible I slipped in a contract for a book deal. The publisher loved it so much that they fast tracked it, and it is being released in less than two weeks from today."

"If you were not responsible for the three A.M. wake up call around here, you would not wake up in the morning," the vein in her forehead pulsates.

"I know you're trying to deter my love, and affection, but I think we both know danger is a lure for me."

She hits him in the face with a pillow.

"That is totally justified. The upside is that you get to stay in swanky hotel for a night in exchange for signing a few hundred books."

"What?!"

"I can email you the itinerary. I'll drop you off at the airport in the morning. The book signing is in the afternoon, and…"

"What do you mean drop me off at the airport?"

"To go to the book signing. We really need to get you to bed… your reasoning skills are fading fast."

"You want me to go out of town by myself? Are you on the same planet I am? We have a newborn baby. I can't just pack a bag, and leave town."

"She will be fine for a day. We have plenty of breast milk in storage."

"I am exhausted, so we're going to finish this conversation tomorrow?"

He begins rubbing her temples.