Title: Chapter 13- Again?!
Author: Gillian Leigh
Disclaimer: See an earlier installment if you really care...
Scully was eating a Snickers bar and downing her third cup of coffee while listening to Dr. Beecher give her the results of the latest series of blood tests run on her and her family.
"Will's blood is still 100% normal, the twins are showing evidence of the gene, but the disease seems to be progressing much more slowly than it did in Will. It's almost totally stopped in fact; which means that smaller amounts of genetically perfect blood could be used to eradicate the disease. Ava's fine, and doing well for being born three weeks early. Fox's blood is normal; the trait for the disease is very well hidden. Your blood is normal, except for one thing..." Scully arched her eyebrow as she took another sip of her coffee. "...the presence of hcG." Scully choked on her coffee, and after recovering from her coughing fit, Dr. Beecher grinned at her and said,
"Congratulations, Dana. Looks like the fourth time's a charm with the IVF. You're pregnant." Scully stood, totally stunned and silent for a minute.
"I -uh- I have to go talk to Fox." She hurried out of Dr. Beecher's office, and toward the waiting room, where her husband sat in a chair, having left the blood test results to her, while he corralled the four kids. Ava slept in her carrier, and the boys were building monstrous castles from the piles of blocks that the hospital provided.
Scully sank into the empty chair next to her husband and leaned her head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head.
"Everything alright?" She nodded.
"The disease is progressing very slowly in the twins, which could be because they came from one infected sperm and one infected egg, instead of two separate ones. Ava and Will are fine, and so are you." He noted that she left herself out of this little speech, and said,
"What about you?" She looked up at him.
"Me? Oh I'm fine. Pregnant, but fine." She was surprised to see none of the shock she'd experienced resounding in his expression. Instead he smiled.
"You're not surprised?" she asked, sitting upright.
"You're the one who's been up every morning throwing up, who's asked me for jalapenos and vanilla ice cream four times in the past two weeks, and who's had to make trips to the bathroom every half an hour, and *you're* surprised?" She blushed.
"I guess I should have recognized the signs, but I couldn't accept it as a possibility because the last three IVF treatments had failed. So it looks like we're pregnant, again."
"Hey, what's a fifth kid," he said, jokingly. "Just another miracle to add to our growing list." Scully smiled.
"I don't mind being pregnant, or having a baby around the house, it's just the in-between -the whole matter of just *how* we get them into the world- that I could do without." Mulder laughed, and kissed the top of her head before gathering the troops.
-Nine months later-
"Dana, you shouldn't be on your feet," Maggie said as she watched her daughter toting Ava on her hip. Scully turned to her mother, and rolled her eyes.
"Mom, it's Ava's birthday, and Fox is clueless. Who else is going to set everything up?"
"I'm perfectly capable of handling birthday parties for my grandchildren," Maggie argued, taking the baby from Scully. "Besides, you should be off your feet. You're not scheduled to have labor induced until next week." Scully threw up her hands in exasperation, and gave an aggravated sigh before heading toward her bedroom and sinking into the bed. She was supposed to be on bed rest, because she'd been told that the pregnancy came with risks, and she was a week overdue. From her position in the upstairs bedroom, she heard a muffled thump, and then a wail. Ava. She was the only one who cried like that. In about a half a second, she was out of the bed and down the flight of stairs. She knelt down beside her mother, who was trying to console the hysterical child. Scully picked Ava up and held her in her arms.
"What happened?" Scully asked of her mother, who was trying to calm herself down.
"She was climbing onto the table, and she must've slipped on the chair and fallen down. She hit her head off of chair."
"I need take her to the emergency room, Mom. She could have a concussion."
"Dana, calm down," Mulder said, having heard all the commotion.
"How am I supposed to calm down, Fox? Our daughter just fell off of our dining room table and onto the floor. She could have a concussion.. or worse. We need to get her to the...hospital," Scully said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Dana, she's fine. Look, she's stopped crying and everything..." Scully grabbed his arm.
"N-no... it's not that. I just felt a contraction."
"We should wait a little while, just to see how close together they are. They're probably Braxton-Hicks again," Mulder said, remembering the previous labor episodes during the preceding two weeks. She shook her head.
"I think once your water breaks, there's no way it can be false labor," she said, looking panicked.
"Are you kidding?" he asked.
"Do you think I would kid about this?! Get me a goddamn ambulance!" she shouted, still holding her daughter, who seemed 100% okay. Mulder returned a moment later, with the phone in his hand, looking panicked.
"It's snowing like a bitch out there, and there was a ten car pile-up on the highway. They'll send the first available ambulance they have, but they don't know how long it could be." Scully shook her head.
"No, no, no. I can't have this baby here. What if we lose the cord blood? Or if there are complications?! I could die, or the baby could. We've got to do something," she said, beginning to panic herself. Maggie took Ava, from Scully, and handed her to Skinner.
"Day," Charlie said, stepping up from the back of the room. "Anne's a doctor too. She's got her bag in the car." Mulder was hoisting Scully up off the floor, and once he'd gotten her into a standing position, he slid his arm behind her knees and carried her like he often carried their children. Anne was Charlie's wife of five years, though the couple had no children, and she was a licensed general practitioner.
"Oh God, Anne, please," Scully called from her husband's arms as he carried her upstairs. Anne nodded, and ran out into the snow to pull her medical kit from the car. Mulder set Scully down on their bed, and pulled off her shoes and stockings, which were soaked in amniotic fluid. Her long denim dress was also soaked, and Mulder helped her sit up while placing several pillows behind her. Mulder hurriedly ran into their bathroom and dampened a washcloth, which he used to wipe her forehead and cheeks with.
"Fox, get Anne," she said, looking panicked again.
"What is it?"
"Get Anne, I need to push," she said again, breathing through a contraction. "Anne!!" she screamed, and her sister-in-law entered the room, wearing gloves, and carrying several towels.
"I'm here, Dana. I have to check and see if you're dilated enough to push," Anne said, and a moment later, the verdict was delivered.
"Take a deep breath, Dana. This is going to be pretty quick." Scully nodded and did as she was told, with Mulder holding her hand.
The paramedics arrived a half an hour later, just in time to witness the fifth Mulder child, a girl, enter the world. Scully's doctors had informed them about the special circumstances, and they didn't cut the cord. They managed to bundle up mother and daughter, and load them into the ambulance. Mulder went to, leaving a houseful of guests who were still too stunned to do anything but sit in silence as they watched the three leave.
Maggie knocked on the door, with Ava on her hip. She entered, followed by Skinner, who was carrying the twins, and Charlie and Anne, who had Will by the hands. Tara came in last, holding Matt.
"Hi there," Maggie said, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead.
"Hi, Mom," Scully responded, sounding twice as exhausted as she looked.
"How's everybody doing?" she asked, studying her new granddaughter, who had inherited her mother's hair, and nose, but she would most likely have her father's chin and eyes.
"We're doing all doing just fine," Scully replied, smiling at her mother. "Thanks to Anne, that is." Anne turned a deep shade of red, and sheepishly smiled.
"And we'd like you all to meet Anna Margaret Mulder." Anne began to cry when she realized that the baby was named after her, and she leaned into Charlie, who smiled at his sister over his wife's head, and mouthed the words,
"Thank you."
