Title: Chapter 4 -The Normal Life

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Don't own them.

Summary: A new house, some old furniture, and a certain poster make the start of a new, "normal" life.

-X-

With two more children on the way, and no place to put them, Mulder and Scully bought a house on the outskirts of Georgetown; the more rural section. Will would be able to grow up there and have an actual backyard to play in with his little brothers.

"And what about a sister or two?" Mulder asked of a frustrated, hugely pregnant Scully as they unpacked the boxes in their kitchen. She glared at him, and he put his hands up, and said,

"Alright, alright. We won't talk about that now." She couldn't help smiling at the innocent-looking expression he wore, and she rose up on her tip-toes, [clearly this had become somewhat of a chore] and kissed him. She turned back to her unpacking, and Mulder massaged her shoulders.

"Mmm, that feels good," she said.

"So, Dana, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately..." he paused, waiting for a comment from her. Nothing came. "We've been best friends for nine years now, and you've been all I've ever wanted, all I've needed. So what do you think about making everything official?" He'd never seen Scully move so fast in her entire life. She looked up at him, her eyes wide.

"You're serious?"

"I've never been more serious in my entire life. Say you'll marry me, Dana." She didn't even have to think before responding,

"Yes. The answer is yes." He slid the ring onto her finger.

Maggie Scully used the key her daughter had given her to gain access to the new house, and Walter Skinner followed her to the kitchen, where he stopped short at the sight of Dana sitting on her kitchen counter, making out with Fox, who was busying himself with his hands up her shirt. She had her hands in his hair. Maggie, totally unfazed, put her hands on her hips and cleared her throat. Scully looked up at her mother, but Mulder continued to kiss her neck, though he did remove his hands from under her shirt. Totally horrified at the sight of her mother and former boss standing in the entryway to her new kitchen, she grew redder and kicked Mulder in the knee. He looked into her eyes, and she raised her eyebrows. He looked toward the doorway and said,

"Oh."

"Hi, Mom," Scully said, knowing her skin color matched her hair.

"You two never give it a rest, do you?" Maggie quipped with a laugh.

"Where's Will?"

"Sleeping in the car. Seeing all the animals tired him out," Maggie replied.

"Did you have any trouble with him?" Mulder asked, running his fingers up and down Scully's back.

"Not at all. He was an angel." Mulder felt Dana tense and saw the look of pain in her eyes.

"Well, that's good..." she squeezed his forearm and. "I hope you don't mind watching him some more, because my water just broke."

-X-

"If you don't get your ass over here right this instant, Fox Mulder, so help me God..." The threat came out as a scream. Down the hall, Maggie grew a little pale. She'd never had the pleasure of witnessing her daughter in labor.

"Breathe through it, sweetheart. We'll get through this," he said, feeling *very* unsure of himself around her.

"We?! What *we*?! I don't see *you* passing something with a head the size of a goddamn cantaloupe out of a ten centimeter orifice in *your* body. And that's for a moment forgetting that I have to do this *twice*. All because of you, you, you...ow ow ow ow ow ow," she said, gritting her teeth.

At the end of the hall, A.D. Skinner lost all coloring from his face. Even with the door closed, he could still hear Scully's insults loud and clear. He felt instantaneous pity for Mulder. He was at the mercy of a woman who was delivering twins, the natural way, and she'd just been told that she'd progressed too much to have an epidural. The contraction ended, and Scully could only sputter,

"...you...bastard."

"I love you too, sweetheart," she said, kissing her forehead.

"Don't give me this 'I love you' crap. You're only saying that because you know that I can't get off this damn bed and come after you while my *uterus is contracting*." Dr. Glass grinned at Mulder sympathetically, having four children of his own, and having been witness to over two hundred deliveries.

'"Time to push, Dana. Are you ready?"

"*Yes*. Just get these kids *out of me*."

"Just a few more, Dana," Mulder said, echoing the doctor's statement.

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. I heard the doctor, *Fox*. I'm pregnant, not deaf," Scully growled, tightening her grip on his hand.

"You're doing wonderfully," he said, trying to ignore the fact that he was going numb from the wrist down in his right arm. Scully looked at him and took her right hand, pulling his face close to hers via his hair.

"Just. stop. talking." She stopped berating him momentarily to take a deep breath and push.

"Already, Dana. Almost there. Two more," Dr. Glass said, glancing up at his patient.

"You said that five pushes ago!" she shouted.

"I promise, this time, you've only got two left. And once the first baby's out, the second will only take two or three pushes to get out. Alright? Let's do this." Scully nodded, not having much of a choice in the matter.

True to his word, two pushes later, Scully screamed in pain and frustration as a newborn's cry joined hers. One glance told them he was a Mulder, with a mop of brown hair on his head, and enormous feet, and one moment of listening to his cries told them that he was pissed off, and he'd inherited his mother's set of lungs.

"It's a boy!" the doctor called, letting Mulder cut the cord. Scully had released her grip on his hand and hair. The nurses took him over to clean him up, and Scully's joyous smile was wiped off her face.

"Ow ow ow ow." Dr. Glass turned his attention back to her.

"Contraction?"

"No, the little brat's kicking me!" she said, wincing.

"Ready for round two, Mr. Mulder?"

"Ready when you two are," Mulder said, hesitantly offering his hand to Scully. She took it and applied a great pressure to it.

"Here we go," Scully said, and took a deep breath. Two pushes later, it was back to the aggravated scream of pain, and a second pissed off Mulder child joining the world.

"And another boy!" Dr. Glass said, and Mulder cut the cord before returning to his wife's side.

"You did a wonderful job, Beautiful." She smiled at him.

"Thank you. You did a great job too. I'm sorry I yelled at you," she said, trying to get her breathing to return to normal.

"It's alright. You were in amounts of pain that I can't even begin to imagine," he said, kissing her forehead and brushing a few sweat soaked strands of hair out of her face.

"I love you," she said quietly, her eyes on their newborn sons across the room.

"I love you too."

Mulder moved slowly down the hallway toward the sleeping Maggie Scully, who held Will, who was also sleeping, on her lap. Skinner was pacing up and down the hall, but stopped when he saw Mulder, clad in blue scrubs, his hair sticking up on one side, slowly approaching carrying two blue-blanketed bundles. He walked toward Mulder without bothering to wake Maggie.

"This is Weston Alexander," Mulder said quietly, indicating the child on the left, who was sound asleep, his brown hair permanently mussed like his father's. His dimple was visible in his left cheek as he slept.

"And this is Charleston Michael," he said, indicating the other infant, who was wide awake. His bright blue eyes were clearly inherited from his mother, but it appeared that every other facial feature he had came from his father. The only way to tell the twins apart was that Weston's dimple was in his left cheek, and Charleston's was in his right.

"Congratulations," Skinner said, smiling at Mulder, who couldn't help but smile back.
"What...uh, what happened to your hair?"

"Dana used it to get her point across."

"Oh."

"Yeah...Sir, will you wake Maggie for me? Dana wants to see Will, and her mother. She wants the two of them to meet the twins together."

Mulder entered Scully's hospital room, and handed Charleston to her.

"My brothers better damn well be honored," she said, in a soft tone as she stroked Charleston's cheek. "We've got a kid who, as far as Bill knows, is his namesake, and Charlie has a nephew named after him too." She looked up at her fiance. It took a moment for her to think of him that way. Fiance. Finally, after all those years...

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she asked, in awe of her children, just as she had been of William.

"They really are," Mulder replied, and kissed her on the cheek.