Only Because He Needed Us
By NeoX
My entry in the "2012 challenge"
Spoilers: Probably. It does take place 10 years after the series ended, so flashbacks are probable.
Summary: They haven't spoken in nearly ten years, but as the invasion date approaches Mulder and Scully learn that their son needs them
Note: NOT MSR, but then, not quite MASHEO either
New Mexico
"Fox, the baby is crying." The soft sleepy voice pulled Mulder out his gauzy dream, the details of which were already fading by the time he opened his eyes. He knew that it was his turn to get up, because that was the deal. Smothering a yawn with one hand, he got out of bed clumsily and stumbled out of the room and down the hall.
Moonlight softly lit the nursery's interior, making the surfaces glow faintly. It would have been lovely scene if the occupant of the white sleigh crib weren't squalling angrily. Mulder stood over the crib and looked in. The baby was red, and shaking tiny fists. Sighing, Mulder reached in and picked up the small wiggling body. "Ok, ok."
He carried the baby over to the changing table and deftly changed the diaper. They swore she was the last. The baby, however, was less concerned about birth order than the fact that her bottom was exposed to the cool night air. He was an expert at diapering, even in a half-awake state, because he's done it many times before. Three minutes later the baby is dry and redressed, and he was left with a limp and placid baby in his arms. She was asleep again by the time he put her back in her crib.
He watched her sleep for a minute, much as he'd done many other nights over the past three months. He still found it hard to believe that he had a daughter. Finally he left her room, shutting the door behind him as softly as possible.
He got back to the master bedroom without waking anyone, but as he pulls back the covers, she stirs. "Is Delaney sleeping?"
"She is now." He replied with a tired smile.
Her soft lips brushed against his. "I love you, Fox."
"I love you too, Caitlin."
She was asleep within seconds, he could tell by her soft even breathing, but he wasn't reclaimed by sleep so readily. His mind was on babies, and his thoughts reached out to his firstborn, William, no longer a baby. He wondered how his son was. Sighing again, he tried to force himself to go back to sleep for a few hours before the kids woke up.
A breeze through the open window ruffled the front page of the page-a-day calendar. The date was September 12, 2012.
**
The alarm clock went off suddenly, scaring Mulder out of sleep. He rolled over with a groan, immediately noticing that Cat was up already, presumably feeding the baby since she didn't have to get up for work. Not even two minutes after he got out of bed he heard the sounds of small feet rushing towards the room, and the doorknob began to wiggle.
Mulder gave the door a wry look as it burst open – no amount of explaining about grown ups preferring to dress without an audience sank in; probably because only one of the lecturees was dressing himself on a regular basis yet.
The boys swarmed in, crowding their father as he tried to put on his pants. "Daddy, daddy!" They chorused, racing around the room.
He slowly dragged one hand across his face as he watched them. "Stop running around." He ordered.
Eventually they obeyed and tumbled onto the bed to watch him continue to get dressed. At least the older two did, and they hauled their little brother up with them. Three brown-haired little boys with identical brown eyes, their mother's eyes, stared at him as he took clothes out of the closet.
Mulder couldn't figure out what they found so enthralling about watching him put on his shirt and tie. "Shouldn't you be with your mom so you can get dressed?"
"Uh uh," Kyle, the four-year-old, said. "Mommy said that 'laney is fussy so you should dress us."
"I'm dressed." Owen helpfully pointed out. At six he enjoyed drawing attention to the differences between him and his brothers.
Mulder was tempted to ask Owen to help Kyle and Avery get dressed, but he knew it would never work. Instead he reached down and picked up the two- year-old. "Owen, why don't you go look in your backpack to make sure your homework is in it."
"It is." He swore with an angelic expression on his face.
Mulder wasn't fooled. Owen's first grade teacher sent home several notes about missing worksheets. "Look anyway, please."
Owen looked dejected as he left the room. Mulder made a mental note to put a gold star for following directions on his chart as he took the younger boys to their room. Cat was big into positive reinforcement, and it did seem to make things go a little easier around the house. In the boys' room he wrestled the toddler into shirt and pants, while supervising Kyle's attempts to dress himself. He needed some help with buttons, but he did a fairly good job of it already.
By the time he'd herded the younger boys downstairs, Owen and Benji were already sitting at the breakfast table with bowls of cereal. At eight years old, Benjamin Mulder considered himself too cool to join his little brothers in their ritual of pestering Dad as he got dressed. Thinking about it gave Mulder a little twinge, just last year he'd been there with them. It wasn't though he actually liked the intrusions, but he sort of missed having him there too if there was going to be anyone at all watching him. They grew up so fast... which was probably why Cat was always so crazy to have another after the current youngest left babyhood. But Delaney was the last, he reminded himself again. Five kids, no six, was enough for any man. Especially a man who, though he didn't feel or look it, was 52 years old.
Cat joined them then, and fed Avery in his highchair while Delaney slept in a baby seat on her other side. Mulder gathered up the older boys – he'd drop Kyle off a preschool, then drive the two older boys to their school, which is where he worked – and kissed Cat good-bye before getting them out to the car. She worked at home, writing a newspaper column about parenting. Their mother's helper, Lydia, would bring Kyle home from preschool then entertain him and the babies while she worked. It was an arrangement that kept Cat sane, so Mulder was glad it was in place.
All in all it was a typical morning in the Mulder household.
**
Washington DC
Professor Dana Scully walked around the room with a clipboard, taking notes. Her students had a greenish tinge to them, and it wasn't solely because of the unflattering scrubs they were wearing. Their assignment, which they were warned in advance – to ward off sudden "illness"- missing would mean a failing grade, was to examine several bodies in the morgue to determine how they had died. It was a far from typical summer class, but this was Quantico, not a university.
One of the young men in the class eyed the professor in a speculative manner. She was still quite attractive for a woman who had to be in her late forties, or so he'd deduced from reading her bio in the library. Not yet 30 he also had a taste for older women, convinced that they were easier to make a move on because they were grateful for the attention of younger virile men. Building his nerve all semester, he decided to hang around after the bell, which was just ringing. The other students took off looking relieved, but he lingered. Scully looked over at him with a neutral expression.
The young man pointed at the hand of the corpse nearest. "Looks like he wore a wedding band, judging by the pale ring around his finger." He tried not to sound nervous, but talking about the dead was far from the romantic direction he was hoping to take the conversation to. "Um...are you married? Do you have kids?" He blurted out, realizing that he probably ought to know those things before trying to hit on her.
She shook her head. "No, I never married. And I had children..." She trailed off. The use of the word 'had' made the young man too sad to even work up a feeble attempt at seduction. "My daughter died as a very small girl, and my son doesn't live with me." She didn't offer any other explanation, and he found he didn't want one.
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." He offered. When she didn't say anything else, he left the room shaking his head. He hadn't expected it to go like that at all.
Scully looked out the window after he left, bitter to have been reminded that she was alone. But there was no one to blame for that but herself.
By NeoX
My entry in the "2012 challenge"
Spoilers: Probably. It does take place 10 years after the series ended, so flashbacks are probable.
Summary: They haven't spoken in nearly ten years, but as the invasion date approaches Mulder and Scully learn that their son needs them
Note: NOT MSR, but then, not quite MASHEO either
New Mexico
"Fox, the baby is crying." The soft sleepy voice pulled Mulder out his gauzy dream, the details of which were already fading by the time he opened his eyes. He knew that it was his turn to get up, because that was the deal. Smothering a yawn with one hand, he got out of bed clumsily and stumbled out of the room and down the hall.
Moonlight softly lit the nursery's interior, making the surfaces glow faintly. It would have been lovely scene if the occupant of the white sleigh crib weren't squalling angrily. Mulder stood over the crib and looked in. The baby was red, and shaking tiny fists. Sighing, Mulder reached in and picked up the small wiggling body. "Ok, ok."
He carried the baby over to the changing table and deftly changed the diaper. They swore she was the last. The baby, however, was less concerned about birth order than the fact that her bottom was exposed to the cool night air. He was an expert at diapering, even in a half-awake state, because he's done it many times before. Three minutes later the baby is dry and redressed, and he was left with a limp and placid baby in his arms. She was asleep again by the time he put her back in her crib.
He watched her sleep for a minute, much as he'd done many other nights over the past three months. He still found it hard to believe that he had a daughter. Finally he left her room, shutting the door behind him as softly as possible.
He got back to the master bedroom without waking anyone, but as he pulls back the covers, she stirs. "Is Delaney sleeping?"
"She is now." He replied with a tired smile.
Her soft lips brushed against his. "I love you, Fox."
"I love you too, Caitlin."
She was asleep within seconds, he could tell by her soft even breathing, but he wasn't reclaimed by sleep so readily. His mind was on babies, and his thoughts reached out to his firstborn, William, no longer a baby. He wondered how his son was. Sighing again, he tried to force himself to go back to sleep for a few hours before the kids woke up.
A breeze through the open window ruffled the front page of the page-a-day calendar. The date was September 12, 2012.
**
The alarm clock went off suddenly, scaring Mulder out of sleep. He rolled over with a groan, immediately noticing that Cat was up already, presumably feeding the baby since she didn't have to get up for work. Not even two minutes after he got out of bed he heard the sounds of small feet rushing towards the room, and the doorknob began to wiggle.
Mulder gave the door a wry look as it burst open – no amount of explaining about grown ups preferring to dress without an audience sank in; probably because only one of the lecturees was dressing himself on a regular basis yet.
The boys swarmed in, crowding their father as he tried to put on his pants. "Daddy, daddy!" They chorused, racing around the room.
He slowly dragged one hand across his face as he watched them. "Stop running around." He ordered.
Eventually they obeyed and tumbled onto the bed to watch him continue to get dressed. At least the older two did, and they hauled their little brother up with them. Three brown-haired little boys with identical brown eyes, their mother's eyes, stared at him as he took clothes out of the closet.
Mulder couldn't figure out what they found so enthralling about watching him put on his shirt and tie. "Shouldn't you be with your mom so you can get dressed?"
"Uh uh," Kyle, the four-year-old, said. "Mommy said that 'laney is fussy so you should dress us."
"I'm dressed." Owen helpfully pointed out. At six he enjoyed drawing attention to the differences between him and his brothers.
Mulder was tempted to ask Owen to help Kyle and Avery get dressed, but he knew it would never work. Instead he reached down and picked up the two- year-old. "Owen, why don't you go look in your backpack to make sure your homework is in it."
"It is." He swore with an angelic expression on his face.
Mulder wasn't fooled. Owen's first grade teacher sent home several notes about missing worksheets. "Look anyway, please."
Owen looked dejected as he left the room. Mulder made a mental note to put a gold star for following directions on his chart as he took the younger boys to their room. Cat was big into positive reinforcement, and it did seem to make things go a little easier around the house. In the boys' room he wrestled the toddler into shirt and pants, while supervising Kyle's attempts to dress himself. He needed some help with buttons, but he did a fairly good job of it already.
By the time he'd herded the younger boys downstairs, Owen and Benji were already sitting at the breakfast table with bowls of cereal. At eight years old, Benjamin Mulder considered himself too cool to join his little brothers in their ritual of pestering Dad as he got dressed. Thinking about it gave Mulder a little twinge, just last year he'd been there with them. It wasn't though he actually liked the intrusions, but he sort of missed having him there too if there was going to be anyone at all watching him. They grew up so fast... which was probably why Cat was always so crazy to have another after the current youngest left babyhood. But Delaney was the last, he reminded himself again. Five kids, no six, was enough for any man. Especially a man who, though he didn't feel or look it, was 52 years old.
Cat joined them then, and fed Avery in his highchair while Delaney slept in a baby seat on her other side. Mulder gathered up the older boys – he'd drop Kyle off a preschool, then drive the two older boys to their school, which is where he worked – and kissed Cat good-bye before getting them out to the car. She worked at home, writing a newspaper column about parenting. Their mother's helper, Lydia, would bring Kyle home from preschool then entertain him and the babies while she worked. It was an arrangement that kept Cat sane, so Mulder was glad it was in place.
All in all it was a typical morning in the Mulder household.
**
Washington DC
Professor Dana Scully walked around the room with a clipboard, taking notes. Her students had a greenish tinge to them, and it wasn't solely because of the unflattering scrubs they were wearing. Their assignment, which they were warned in advance – to ward off sudden "illness"- missing would mean a failing grade, was to examine several bodies in the morgue to determine how they had died. It was a far from typical summer class, but this was Quantico, not a university.
One of the young men in the class eyed the professor in a speculative manner. She was still quite attractive for a woman who had to be in her late forties, or so he'd deduced from reading her bio in the library. Not yet 30 he also had a taste for older women, convinced that they were easier to make a move on because they were grateful for the attention of younger virile men. Building his nerve all semester, he decided to hang around after the bell, which was just ringing. The other students took off looking relieved, but he lingered. Scully looked over at him with a neutral expression.
The young man pointed at the hand of the corpse nearest. "Looks like he wore a wedding band, judging by the pale ring around his finger." He tried not to sound nervous, but talking about the dead was far from the romantic direction he was hoping to take the conversation to. "Um...are you married? Do you have kids?" He blurted out, realizing that he probably ought to know those things before trying to hit on her.
She shook her head. "No, I never married. And I had children..." She trailed off. The use of the word 'had' made the young man too sad to even work up a feeble attempt at seduction. "My daughter died as a very small girl, and my son doesn't live with me." She didn't offer any other explanation, and he found he didn't want one.
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." He offered. When she didn't say anything else, he left the room shaking his head. He hadn't expected it to go like that at all.
Scully looked out the window after he left, bitter to have been reminded that she was alone. But there was no one to blame for that but herself.