Title: Without You Part Twenty-one
All other information is in the first part.
Author's Note at the end.
Enjoy!
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September 20, 2002
Mulder Home
6:54 p.m.
Mulder and I sit outside on the porch swing. I only have a month left of being pregnant and I'm huge! My doctors are saying that the twins are healthy and it could be anytime. I can't imagine that in less than a month, hell it could be this week, I might be the mother of not one, but three beautiful kids.
Mulder's arm rests behind me as the wind blows gently over the grounds of our house. William runs around in the yard with Spooky, our new dog, a black and white mutt that Mulder just had to get from the pound.
"Scully, how are you feeling?" Mulder asks rubbing my shoulders.
I feel like a huge blimp, but I don't want to tell him that. My feet are swollen, my back aches, my stomach has expanded beyond belief and he's asking me how I'm feeling? I laugh at the thought.
"Fine," I tell him, like usual.
"You know, Scully, it doesn't matter the situation or the place we are at, you will always be 'fine'" Mulder says laughing as he places his hand on my huge stomach, rubbing it in circles.
I laugh and lean my head back trying to relax. I close my eyes and breathe in the scent of an autumn day. This Canadian weather is working for me, not too hot, not too cold, well not yet at least.
"John and Monica said that they were going to stop by," Mulder tell me out of the blue.
"When?" I ask, not paying attention.
"I don't know. They didn't say. All they said was that they have some big news."
"Big news, huh? They're probably getting married," I say, "Something that we should have done two years ago."
"Aw, come on, Scully, you've got the ring on your finger. We'll tie the knot someday. Why ruin it?" Mulder asks, looking over at me, "Besides it would be really weird calling you Mulder."
I laugh. Of all the things that we have gone through I think that its been his humor that has gotten me through. He always finds the best and the worst time to crack the strangest of jokes or to say the snide comments that are only funny to the both of us.
William starts to giggle and we both look up to see John and Monica walking into our yard.
"Where's your car?" I ask.
"We thought that it was a nice day for a walk. Besides we're only a block away," John says, rationally.
"It makes sense. I wish I could still walk. Right now its almost comical when I walk," I tell them.
"She looks like a penguin," Mulder says laughing.
I shoot him my 'Scully' look, but can't hold a serious expression and break into a smile a second later.
"Come on in, pull up a seat," Mulder invites them.
John and Monica sit down across from us. They are both nervous, very nervous. Their news must be really big.
"So what's up?" I say, finally breaking the silence.
They look at one another and then back at us. Something's wrong. Something has to be wrong.
"Now you might think that we're crazy, but..." John starts.
"You're getting married, right?" I interrupt grinning at the couple.
They both laugh nervously and then all is silent.
"I take that as a 'no'," Mulder replies.
"Yeah. No wedding bells in our future," Monica says, shifting her gaze to the ground.
More silence.
I hate these awkward silences because it makes me start to think and when I start to think I come up with a ton of different ideas of what could happen.
"Well, then what is it?" I say again.
Monica bites her lip and then reaches out for John's hand.
"I think I'm crazy, maybe we're crazy, but..."
She stops and looks to John for reassurance.
"We've been jealous of your family...so we've decided to start our own," John says as seriously as he can, but he breaks into a huge grin.
"Does that mean...?" I ask, pondering, reaching.
"Yeah, I'm pregnant," Monica finally says.
"That's wonderful!" I tell her getting up as quickly as my body will allow and hugging her.
"John, you son of a gun..." Mulder says laughing as he shakes John's hand and pulls him in for a hug.
"Well, you should talk, Mr. Mulder," John replies eyeing my stomach.
"When are you due?" I ask her. My lower back starts to really ache and a shooting pain goes across my abdomen, but I just rub my stomach not wanting to interrupt Monica's exciting moment.
"The end of April," she says grinning.
"That's great," I tell her and then clench my teeth. My God! I just felt another shooting pain.
They all stare at me like I'm some guinea pig or something.
"Scully, you okay?" Mulder asks looking at me concerned.
Another searing pain shoots through my abdomen, one that nearly makes me double over in pain.
"I don't know," I tell him clenching my teeth again.
"With that face..." Mulder starts.
"Mulder, I think that I'm in labor," I tell him reaching out for his arm.
"That's good, otherwise I'd take you into the hospital for scaring the crap out of me with that face," Mulder says guiding me towards our car.
"Sorry to rain on your parade, Monica," I tell her.
"Hey, I'll be going through that in about eight months."
Mulder grabs William and we all pile into our vehicle. All five of us off and ready to bring into the world the two children that we had to go into hiding for. The two children that neither of us thought was possible. The two that we all would fight for.
Another pain rips through my body and I bite back a scream.
"Look what you're getting into, Monica," I tell her through the pain.
"Wonderful," she says.
Mulder pulls up into the hospital emergency entrance minutes later...one of the perks of living close to the hospital. He helps me out of the car and into a waiting wheelchair.
Monica and John take William into the waiting room as I continue to suffer through pain after pain.
St. Mary's Hospital
Roseau, British Columbia, Canada
September 20, 2002
11:21 p.m.
After just four hours of labor I sit in my hospital room looking into the wrinkled faces of two tiny infants. Our two children. Mulder sits in the bed next to me supporting one of the babies.
A boy and a girl. Completely healthy.
"So, Mulder what are we going to name them?" I ask him looking into the face of our daughter.
He holds the tiny little boy.
"You know, I never thought that I'd be here with you, with two babies," Mulder says in awe.
"Somewhere along the way I knew we'd end up happy. I didn't know how, but I knew that we would."
"She looks like an Emma," Mulder says looking at our daughter.
"Isn't that a little close to Emily?" I ask him, remembering the daughter that I never really knew.
"The name would be in memory of her," Mulder says, "Emma Caitlin Mulder. I like the sound of that."
"She does look like an Emma," I tell him.
Our son screws up his face in protest and starts to fuss. His hair is lightly colored red and obviously he's inherited the Scully personality.
"Aidan," I pause, "His name is Aidan."
"Where'd that come from?" Mulder asks, rocking the baby back and forth.
"Aidan means fiery and the kid already has a spit-fire personality," I tell him, "Aidan Charles Mulder."
Mulder looks from Emma to Aidan and then back to me.
"Aidan and Emma, I like it," he says grinning.
A quiet knock comes from the door and Monica and John walk through it holding onto a sleeping William.
"How's everybody doing?" Monica asks.
"Everyone's doing just fine," I tell her grinning as I hold Emma in my arms.
"So what's the report?" John inquires.
"I'd like you to meet Aidan Charles and Emma Caitlin Mulder, weighing in at a healthy five and a half pounds a piece," Mulder says proudly displaying our kids.
"Aidan and Emma, huh?" John asks.
"Welcome to the world, even though it can be a strange one at times," Monica says as she moves closer to the kids, "May I?" she asks.
I nod. She takes Emma into her arms and looks down at her.
"So this is what its all about?" she asks in amazement.
"You'll know exactly what its about in April," I tell her.
"Hopefully the future will be full of everything that we could ever want for our kids," she says, "everything that we could hope for."
"We've come a long way," Mulder says, "And we didn't get here alone."
"No, Mulder we didn't. We did it together."
Everyone is quiet in the room as we contemplate the future.
Aidan starts to cry, announcing that the future is already here...a safe place for us all. It has been a long journey for everyone. I lost Mulder and I was without my soul mate and our son, but I found them again and the life that we were never destined to have is now in our grasp. A life that looked bleak less than a year ago, a life without you is now out of the picture.
FIN
Author's Note: Thank you so much for all of the support throughout this story. I can't believe that this story went on for nearly six months! That's a long time for anything to be going on, including a story that I only intended to be a short one...but 70 pages later I'm happy to say that I decided to continue to write this alternate ending to the series.
It has been a great ride and I'm glad that you all enjoyed it. Feedback helped me to make this one little idea into a 70 page/21 part story. Thanks so much for everything and please review...tell me what you think:)
~Jen