Disclaimer: ok, for those of you who read this and when you come across 'wally world' you have no clue what it means, 'wally world' is Wal-Mart. I don't own Wal-Mart, although I'd be very rich if I did. Damn, why don't I ever own anything of substance?

9:30pm

The kids are now sleeping, after a long struggle on Bradley's part, and a bit of crying from Kaylie. But nonetheless, they're sleeping. At the moment im wrapping up their gifts, because I never got the chance to do it before, I wrapped Charlie's and Anne's before leaving for the case, and Mulder's before he came over yesterday. Charlie and Anne had wrapped theirs earlier like I had thought, and mom is wrapping Bradley's and Kaylie's as well.

'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire' Fills the air, and I look over at the fire Charlie and Mulder recently made.

Ok, so it's the typical Christmas eve, but what was expected? Aliens, government conspiracies? Maybe conspiracies between the family, but no government ploys this holiday. Thank God.

'Jack Frost nipping at your nose'

I finish the last gift and place it under the tree. Then I admire the tree in itself, I think Charlie put it together, but im sure mom and Anne were the ones who decorated it. It's all gold, from the ribbons to the balls, even the angel is dressed in all gold. It's very beautiful…I have to hand it to them. My Christmas tree consists of a three foot fake tree from the local wally world.

Not that I particularly mind, im hardly ever home for Christmas anyway. Im either off chasing after aliens with Mulder of here, at moms. Pathetic, I know. But, it's my life, and I wouldn't change it.

Mulder has been bugging Anne and Charlie to tell him my little weakness all day, and although Charlie has almost broke a few times--I always catch him before he does, and have gotten use to slapping him upside the head if he even considers--Anne hasn't even shown signs of breaking. I doubt she ever will. Good, my secret is safe.

"Oh, come on Mrs. Scully. Just tell me." Mulder whines.

"I will not tell you, furthermore, stop calling me Mrs. Scully, I've asked you time and time again to call me Margaret. And if Dana wants you to know she'll tell you."

Mulder looks back at me evilly, "well we know that'll never happen."

"Damn straight. You'll never know."

He pouts and slumps onto the couch, God when he pouts like that I could just kiss him. Came close to doing it a few times, took everything I had not too. Damn my conscious.

I get up and go into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. While im reaching up for a mug I feel fingers on my hips, fingers that are tickling. I spin around fast, "Charlie Scully--"

Only it's not Charlie. It's Mulder.

"He told you!"

"Nope, I figured it out. Im smarter than you think." He starts to tickle me again and I almost drop moms cup…but have enough sense to set it down first. I start to push as hard as I can, but Mulder proves to be stronger than Charlie was. Im soon backed into one of the corners and still trying desperately to push Mulder off of me. The corner im backed into turns out to be moms counter and I jump up on it, how Mulder's still tickling me im not sure. I position myself the same way I had when I pushed Charlie off of me, my hands on his shoulders and my feet in his stomach, and push. Mulder flies back, but doesn't fall.

"I can't believe he told you." I scream.

"I didn't say anything!" Charlie says coming through the kitchen door, "it was your sister-in-law. She's a blabbermouth, you know that."

Mulder smirks.

"ANNE MARIE SCULLY!" I call from where I still sit on the counter, "get in here now!"

She pokes her head through the door, "what?" She says--trying to sound innocent, but failing.

"You told!"

She gaps, "I did not." Then she smiles a guilty grin.

"You did too! I can't believe you."

She laughs evilly, "what? Like you blame me, you would have done the same exact thing. Besides, I felt sorry for him…at least now he has a point."

"Oh, no he doesn't. I didn't give up, he doesn't get the point."

"Yeah. But now he has every ample opportunity to get a point, whereas before he had no chance at all."

"Hey." Mulder says in his deffense, "I would've found a way."

"Sure, whatever you say." Anne jokes. "Come on back into the living room you guys, we're about to open a gift."

Mulder looks at me confused, "I thought opening gifts was for Christmas morning."

"It is, but we open one the night before."

"Oh, I see. Then you can open one of my gifts, I'll go get one." He left out the kitchen door, up to his room.

Anne shot me a look.

"Oh, shut up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mulder and I had decided that we would open our gifts last, letting mom go first (she was opening one from Charlie and Anne), then Charlie and Anne would exchange theirs. Charlie and Anne had gotten mom the necklace she wanted, which was good for me because I got her the earrings that went with it. Charlie got Anne her favorite perfume, Chance by Chanel, and she got him his favorite cologne, Giorgio Armani. Not very big bottles though, because they're very costly.

Then it was time for Mulder and I to exchange gifts, the conspiracy among my family stayed true and Anne, Charlie, and mom went upstairs to go to bed. Yeah right, it was only 10 o'clock. Mulder seemed oblivious to their little ruse and didn't seem to notice anything suspicious in them leaving so early. I opened my gift first.

"Mulder, you know you didn't have to get me--" I held the gift in my hands, "oh Mulder, it's perfect." I looked at the tattered cover of the book and traced the letters with my fingers.

"It's a first edition, the 6th one to be printed. I tried to find one that was made before then, but the 6th was the oldest I could find."

I looked down at the old copy of 'Moby Dick', "Mulder, this gift, you didn't have to."

"I wanted to though."

"I brought down one of your gag gifts Mulder, if I had known you were going to give me something serious then I would've brought down a good one. My gifts going to seem dumb."

"Scully, you inviting me was gift enough."

I blushed slightly, "I invite you every year Mulder, you just never agree."

"I know, but I had to look out for myself. I would be dead by now if Bill was down here." He smiled, "now. Im going to open my gift." He tore into the box and took out the shirt, it was black and had a green alien on it, the bold green letters under it said 'I want to believe'. He looked at me for a second, "there's something else, isn't there?"

I smiled, reached behind the couch and brought out the shirt that I had bought for myself. It was black also, and in bold green letters just like Mulder's it read, 'im with stupid'. A big green arrow pointed to the right. "I figure it puts things into perspective."

"Yeah, that way im dubbed the spooky one, and you're just along for the ride."

"Exactly."

"You think they'd let me wear it to work?"

"I thought we'd wear them to the game."

"Excuse me?"

"You've got no imagination Mulder, look under the tissue paper."

He took the red paper out of the box and then held up the ticket, "a Yankees game Scully? Row 15, how did you manage that?"

"Oh, I've got friends," I showed him my ticket, "you can only go if you wear that shirt, it's a package deal. You wear your shirt, I wear mine. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Thank you so much again Mulder, I love the book."

"And I love the shirt, and tickets…you really didn't have to you know. The shirt would have been enough."

"You think that's all? Trust me, there's many more gifts where that came from, as long as you have other gifts for me."

He laughed, "of course Scully."

I smiled, "just making sure Mulder." I looked back down at my book again and sighed. "Every time I see this book--well the story in itself, not this exact book--I think of him. You two would have had a lot in common, if he could've gotten past the whole FBI thing. I mean I know he loved me no matter what, he was my father, but he might have held a grudge against you, he kind of saw you as the reason I stayed in the FBI. He was right of course, but you're not the reason I joined in the first place. But then again, my mom wasn't very fond of you at first, and now look at her…she'd rather have you here for Christmas than Bill."

"What's that mean?"

Oops. I let it spill, "er…nothing Mulder."

"No Scully, tell me what you mean."

I sighed, "well…Bill was going to come for Christmas, he had the option of either coming here or going to Tara's parents. Mom told him not to come this year, she didn't tell him why, she just said go to Tara's parents. She was planning on you coming this year for awhile Mulder."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

A silence fell upon us, not an awkward silence--per se--but not a comfortable one either. I looked down at my book and he looked down at the ticket in his hands. "April 12th huh. That's pretty far away."

"My friend isn't that high up Mulder, I was lucky to get the 12th, we could've gotten closer, if we waited until summer to go…I figured you'd rather go sooner and sit two or three rows back than go later and sit in the 12th or 13th row. You're ok with it right?"

"Yeah, your right, I'd go crazy waiting until summer. Thanks again Scully."

"Hey, the gift isn't only for you. Im starting to like baseball." I smiled, and remembered back to when Mulder taught me how to play baseball…that had been a good night. I could still feel Mulder's arms around me, his warm breath on my skin as he repeated 'hips before hands', and the feeling of his hands on my hips as he showed me how. Oh yeah, that had been a damn good night.

It only then occurred to me that he was talking, "…face it Scully, you suck at baseball."

"Yeah, well, I could always learn. With the right teacher of course."

"Is that a challenge."

"Maybe."

"I'll take that as a yes. Ok Scully, when it gets a little warmer I'll teach you how to play baseball. And not just hitting the ball, throwing and catching too. Ok?"

"It's a da…deal." I blushed realize I had almost said 'date'…not that that's what I would have meant. Mulder didn't pick up on it and nodded his head. I yawned and got off of the bed, "im going to go to bed ok Mulder? I'll see you bright and early. Because believe me when I tell you, Bradley will have everybody in the house up bright and early. So you'd better get to sleep too, if you don't want to be tired when you wake up in the morning."

He nodded and got up off of the couch, we walked upstairs and to our rooms.

"Sweet dreams." Mulder said opening his door.

"You too Mulder." I smiled as I went into my room. I laid on the bed and wrapped my body in the warm covers. Moments later I was sleeping.

~**~**~**~

a/n: these chapters are coming out quick now. Like I said, I've got a lot of ideas in my mind at the moment. Im also working on the next chapter of To Save the World, so that should be out soon, maybe by Thursday. I'm going to a yankee's game myself, I think it's April 13th though. I can't wait, not sure where exactly im sitting though. I'm going with school, so probably not that close. Ah, oh well. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, please keep reviewing!

~Brittany~