Later that night, Mulder checked on all the kids to see if they were
sleeping. Once he saw that they were he went back downstairs. He needed to
talk to Cat, and didn't want any little ears listening.
Joining her on the couch, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled against his side. For a moment he thought of a time when Scully had done the same thing, but quickly banished the thought, sure that he'd only thought of her because of the day's events. "Are you really ok with this?" He asked softly.
She turned her beautiful brown eyes on him with a gentle smile. "He's your baby, Fox." She said simply, as if that was all there was to the issue.
"I know." He said, still speaking softly so they wouldn't wake anyone upstairs. "But he's not your baby. You must feel something about this."
Cat shook her head slightly. "Relief. I'm relieved that you finally found the missing piece of your soul. I know the kids and I help, but there's always been a hole there. Now it's filled. Or it will be." She touched his face. "I've always known you needed him back. I'm just glad you've got him now, and wished it had been sooner."
For a moment he lost himself in that thought, imagining William at their wedding, perhaps the ring bearer, the toddler's delighted or surprised or comical reaction to the birth of his younger brother Benji, he and Cat sending him off to kindergarten..."I'm glad you feel that way." Mulder told her, planting a gentle kiss on her cheek.
"Besides." She said, lightly tickling his ribs. "I was sort of hoping to talk you into another kid, and this means I won't even have to get pregnant." She told him with a silly grin. "He's going to make a great addition to our family."
A thrill of joy shot through him. He should have known if someone would welcome a little lost boy with open arms, it'd be his Cat. He basked in that happiness for a few moments longer, before his brain decided to bring up something that had been nagging at the back of his mind since Mr. Van DeKamp's car had sped away from the driveway. "What about what they said? About people breaking in and trying to grab William?"
Many wives would have said that the couple had been crazy, but she knew it would do no good to try to placate him. "If anything like that comes up, we'll deal with it. They're right, you know, you are better equipped to deal with a situation like that than ordinary people."
She didn't want to talk any more about problems that might never come up, so she kissed him into submission. By the time she lead him to their room, it was obvious that child snatchers were the last thing on his mind.
**
Later that night, though, Cat had trouble sleeping. Mulder was curled up next to her, breathing softly on her neck, but her mind just wasn't ready to turn off for the night. All she could think about is when he told her about his old life, and not just about his missing baby.
The first time she heard about the X-Files was a few days after she playfully suggested that he commit career suicide, and take up with her. When she'd made the suggestion he'd told her that he'd think about it, but the look on his face suggested there was a lot more he wanted to tell her.
And tell her he did, after inviting her over to his cramped little apartment for a pizza and a movie. He'd seemed really nervous to her, and she didn't exactly know why, since they hadn't been dating long enough for him to propose or anything, but it soon became evident that he was worried that she'd think he was crazy.
He'd begun with the statement every new girlfriend hates. "There are things about my past you ought to know about." But it had not been a laundry list of ex-wives, jail time, or other petty indiscretions.
Instead he told her about the X-Files, the aliens, and the syndicate.
She almost wished he'd told her that he was a drug addict with six ex wives, a half a million in gambling debt and a taste for women's panties.
He wasn't crazy, though, and that's what worried her. Crazy can be medicated, the truth has to be dealt with head on. That, she instantly realized, is why he said he would have to think over her suggestion. He needed to know that she wouldn't leave him after she learned THE TRUTH- that's how it came out in his voice, all capital letters and significance.
Maybe if she'd been smarter, or at least not so smitten, she might have backed away from him quickly. It was the rational thing to do when your boyfriend told you he'd just spent the last decade of his life fighting a world wide conspiracy, that, oh yeah, wasn't though with us mere mortals yet. But she didn't have the heart to. She already loved him too much.
It surprised her sometimes how little THE TRUTH interfered with their life, and she could almost pretend that there was nothing out of the ordinary going on in the world. Except he'd told her about the cult that had kidnapped William, and he'd told her about December 22nd, 2012 too.
That date was fast approaching, and even though she didn't consider herself sensitive the way Reyes did, she could feel something on the wind. She tried to tell herself that believing implicitly in Fox made her antsy about the date, but it took another hour before her brain would believe her and let her sleep.
**
Mulder was already out of bed by the time Cat woke up. She felt a little guilty, since she'd wanted to be up before the boys so they'd be easy on William.
To her surprise, all of them were in the kitchen, neatly dressed and eating breakfast. William seemed slightly tense, but his little brothers were on gold-star behavior, so it looked like things were going more smoothly than she would have thought possible without the adult supervision of two parents. She knew that Benji was big enough to sense when someone needed space, but Owen and Kyle seemed a lot more perceptive than she'd have given them credit for. Avery, on the other hand, was so engrossed in feeding himself cheerios that a bomb going off might not have drawn his attention away from the task at hand.
The only grumpy face in the kitchen was Mulder's. And he was grumpy looking indeed. He put down the phone with a disgusted look and finally noticed that Cat was there. "Cat, can I talk to you and William in the living room please?"
It didn't escape her notice that three pairs of eyes followed them as they left the room. As long as the watched from afar, she wasn't going to complain.
Mulder, however, was going to. "I was on the phone with my boss just now." He said, still looking annoyed. "I had wanted to take today off, but he claims there's no way they can get a sub to cover me. I'm sorry."
William realized that his father was apologizing to him, and it surprised him. He'd never been apologized to by an adult before, and this wasn't even his father's fault. "It's ok." He answered quickly.
"It's not really." Mulder said firmly. "You'll be ok here with Cat today?"
"Sure."
"We'll have a great day, Fox." Cat said, kissing his cheek.
"Yeah, and I'll see you as soon as you get home." William added stoically.
"Ok..." Mulder gave William a careful look, which made the boy tense up slightly. "While I'm at work, I'll get the paperwork we need to enroll you in school, ok? You'll start some time after Monday."
William hadn't thought about school yet, but he nodded. At least he had a few days before starting something new.
**
Once Mulder and the older boys were gone, William was a little lost. He liked Mulder's wife, she seemed nice so far, but he didn't know what to do. Fortunately, Cat noticed. "William, I'm going to wake up Delaney to feed her. Do you want me to bring Avery upstairs with me, or would you like to keep an eye on him?"
William looked at the toddler for a moment, trying to decide. "Will he like me?"
"I think so. Why don't you ask him? He talks." She added with a smile. Avery never said a word during meals, so that fact may have escaped William's notice.
William walked to the high chair and addressed the youngest of his half brothers. "Do you want to go upstairs with your mom, or play with me?"
Avery solemnly regarded him. "We watch TV?"
Cat noticed he didn't know what to say, so mouthed "sure" to him.
"If you want too." William agreed.
"With you! I like TV." Avery told him.
It only took him a few seconds to extract the toddler from the chair, and bring him into the living room. A couple of minutes later, Avery instructed him what channel to put it on, and crawled up onto the couch next to him. He was slightly amazed by the little boy's chatter, since the child was still in diapers. His adopted parents could have told him that he was a little chatter box at that age, but they never had.
**
Despite Owen's worries the night before, William didn't cry until that afternoon. He'd has a good morning, and had enjoyed watch TV with Avery. He even asked Cat if he could hold Delaney, and it had been nice, but he'd bored quickly of that and had handed her back to her mother. It was nothing that any of them had done that set him off later.
What had done the trick was the moving van showing up just after lunch as promised. Two large men had lumbered out of the truck and knocked on the door, which Cat opened for them. The one who seemed to be in charge apologized for not getting there sooner, but it had been quite a drive from Wyoming. William had just stared at them with hollow eyes.
When they came in with the first load of neatly packed boxes, William fled the couch where he'd been sitting, and nearly caused Avery, who'd been leaning against him to fall over. He ended up in the bathroom, breathing hard. Until he saw the boxes of his things, it hadn't felt quite real. He was really never going to go back to his old house or school, and he'd have to make new friends and learn how to be a big brother.
After putting the toilet seat down, he perched on it, and let the tears course down his face. Giving the door watery glances, he kept expecting Cat to knock and demand to know if he was ok. But she didn't. He was grateful for that.
A few minutes later, his tears dried up completely, and he scrubbed his face with a wash cloth and cold water. Even after he dried his face, you could tell he'd been crying, but he didn't really care.
Cat didn't hover when he came out. She gave him the briefest of sympathetic looks, then suggested that Mulder might be able to help him unpack when he got home from work. William nodded. The moving men were already gone, and the boxes were stacked neatly in his room.
Avery came up behind him and commented in wonder that William had a lot of stuff, which made him laugh in spite of himself. Then he let Avery show him the empty room that was going to be his to sleep in when he was "a big boy." William got the oddest flash of insight, and came away with the impression that the toddler thought having his own room was connected to being potty trained. He shrugged; that sort of flash was nothing unusual.
Joining her on the couch, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled against his side. For a moment he thought of a time when Scully had done the same thing, but quickly banished the thought, sure that he'd only thought of her because of the day's events. "Are you really ok with this?" He asked softly.
She turned her beautiful brown eyes on him with a gentle smile. "He's your baby, Fox." She said simply, as if that was all there was to the issue.
"I know." He said, still speaking softly so they wouldn't wake anyone upstairs. "But he's not your baby. You must feel something about this."
Cat shook her head slightly. "Relief. I'm relieved that you finally found the missing piece of your soul. I know the kids and I help, but there's always been a hole there. Now it's filled. Or it will be." She touched his face. "I've always known you needed him back. I'm just glad you've got him now, and wished it had been sooner."
For a moment he lost himself in that thought, imagining William at their wedding, perhaps the ring bearer, the toddler's delighted or surprised or comical reaction to the birth of his younger brother Benji, he and Cat sending him off to kindergarten..."I'm glad you feel that way." Mulder told her, planting a gentle kiss on her cheek.
"Besides." She said, lightly tickling his ribs. "I was sort of hoping to talk you into another kid, and this means I won't even have to get pregnant." She told him with a silly grin. "He's going to make a great addition to our family."
A thrill of joy shot through him. He should have known if someone would welcome a little lost boy with open arms, it'd be his Cat. He basked in that happiness for a few moments longer, before his brain decided to bring up something that had been nagging at the back of his mind since Mr. Van DeKamp's car had sped away from the driveway. "What about what they said? About people breaking in and trying to grab William?"
Many wives would have said that the couple had been crazy, but she knew it would do no good to try to placate him. "If anything like that comes up, we'll deal with it. They're right, you know, you are better equipped to deal with a situation like that than ordinary people."
She didn't want to talk any more about problems that might never come up, so she kissed him into submission. By the time she lead him to their room, it was obvious that child snatchers were the last thing on his mind.
**
Later that night, though, Cat had trouble sleeping. Mulder was curled up next to her, breathing softly on her neck, but her mind just wasn't ready to turn off for the night. All she could think about is when he told her about his old life, and not just about his missing baby.
The first time she heard about the X-Files was a few days after she playfully suggested that he commit career suicide, and take up with her. When she'd made the suggestion he'd told her that he'd think about it, but the look on his face suggested there was a lot more he wanted to tell her.
And tell her he did, after inviting her over to his cramped little apartment for a pizza and a movie. He'd seemed really nervous to her, and she didn't exactly know why, since they hadn't been dating long enough for him to propose or anything, but it soon became evident that he was worried that she'd think he was crazy.
He'd begun with the statement every new girlfriend hates. "There are things about my past you ought to know about." But it had not been a laundry list of ex-wives, jail time, or other petty indiscretions.
Instead he told her about the X-Files, the aliens, and the syndicate.
She almost wished he'd told her that he was a drug addict with six ex wives, a half a million in gambling debt and a taste for women's panties.
He wasn't crazy, though, and that's what worried her. Crazy can be medicated, the truth has to be dealt with head on. That, she instantly realized, is why he said he would have to think over her suggestion. He needed to know that she wouldn't leave him after she learned THE TRUTH- that's how it came out in his voice, all capital letters and significance.
Maybe if she'd been smarter, or at least not so smitten, she might have backed away from him quickly. It was the rational thing to do when your boyfriend told you he'd just spent the last decade of his life fighting a world wide conspiracy, that, oh yeah, wasn't though with us mere mortals yet. But she didn't have the heart to. She already loved him too much.
It surprised her sometimes how little THE TRUTH interfered with their life, and she could almost pretend that there was nothing out of the ordinary going on in the world. Except he'd told her about the cult that had kidnapped William, and he'd told her about December 22nd, 2012 too.
That date was fast approaching, and even though she didn't consider herself sensitive the way Reyes did, she could feel something on the wind. She tried to tell herself that believing implicitly in Fox made her antsy about the date, but it took another hour before her brain would believe her and let her sleep.
**
Mulder was already out of bed by the time Cat woke up. She felt a little guilty, since she'd wanted to be up before the boys so they'd be easy on William.
To her surprise, all of them were in the kitchen, neatly dressed and eating breakfast. William seemed slightly tense, but his little brothers were on gold-star behavior, so it looked like things were going more smoothly than she would have thought possible without the adult supervision of two parents. She knew that Benji was big enough to sense when someone needed space, but Owen and Kyle seemed a lot more perceptive than she'd have given them credit for. Avery, on the other hand, was so engrossed in feeding himself cheerios that a bomb going off might not have drawn his attention away from the task at hand.
The only grumpy face in the kitchen was Mulder's. And he was grumpy looking indeed. He put down the phone with a disgusted look and finally noticed that Cat was there. "Cat, can I talk to you and William in the living room please?"
It didn't escape her notice that three pairs of eyes followed them as they left the room. As long as the watched from afar, she wasn't going to complain.
Mulder, however, was going to. "I was on the phone with my boss just now." He said, still looking annoyed. "I had wanted to take today off, but he claims there's no way they can get a sub to cover me. I'm sorry."
William realized that his father was apologizing to him, and it surprised him. He'd never been apologized to by an adult before, and this wasn't even his father's fault. "It's ok." He answered quickly.
"It's not really." Mulder said firmly. "You'll be ok here with Cat today?"
"Sure."
"We'll have a great day, Fox." Cat said, kissing his cheek.
"Yeah, and I'll see you as soon as you get home." William added stoically.
"Ok..." Mulder gave William a careful look, which made the boy tense up slightly. "While I'm at work, I'll get the paperwork we need to enroll you in school, ok? You'll start some time after Monday."
William hadn't thought about school yet, but he nodded. At least he had a few days before starting something new.
**
Once Mulder and the older boys were gone, William was a little lost. He liked Mulder's wife, she seemed nice so far, but he didn't know what to do. Fortunately, Cat noticed. "William, I'm going to wake up Delaney to feed her. Do you want me to bring Avery upstairs with me, or would you like to keep an eye on him?"
William looked at the toddler for a moment, trying to decide. "Will he like me?"
"I think so. Why don't you ask him? He talks." She added with a smile. Avery never said a word during meals, so that fact may have escaped William's notice.
William walked to the high chair and addressed the youngest of his half brothers. "Do you want to go upstairs with your mom, or play with me?"
Avery solemnly regarded him. "We watch TV?"
Cat noticed he didn't know what to say, so mouthed "sure" to him.
"If you want too." William agreed.
"With you! I like TV." Avery told him.
It only took him a few seconds to extract the toddler from the chair, and bring him into the living room. A couple of minutes later, Avery instructed him what channel to put it on, and crawled up onto the couch next to him. He was slightly amazed by the little boy's chatter, since the child was still in diapers. His adopted parents could have told him that he was a little chatter box at that age, but they never had.
**
Despite Owen's worries the night before, William didn't cry until that afternoon. He'd has a good morning, and had enjoyed watch TV with Avery. He even asked Cat if he could hold Delaney, and it had been nice, but he'd bored quickly of that and had handed her back to her mother. It was nothing that any of them had done that set him off later.
What had done the trick was the moving van showing up just after lunch as promised. Two large men had lumbered out of the truck and knocked on the door, which Cat opened for them. The one who seemed to be in charge apologized for not getting there sooner, but it had been quite a drive from Wyoming. William had just stared at them with hollow eyes.
When they came in with the first load of neatly packed boxes, William fled the couch where he'd been sitting, and nearly caused Avery, who'd been leaning against him to fall over. He ended up in the bathroom, breathing hard. Until he saw the boxes of his things, it hadn't felt quite real. He was really never going to go back to his old house or school, and he'd have to make new friends and learn how to be a big brother.
After putting the toilet seat down, he perched on it, and let the tears course down his face. Giving the door watery glances, he kept expecting Cat to knock and demand to know if he was ok. But she didn't. He was grateful for that.
A few minutes later, his tears dried up completely, and he scrubbed his face with a wash cloth and cold water. Even after he dried his face, you could tell he'd been crying, but he didn't really care.
Cat didn't hover when he came out. She gave him the briefest of sympathetic looks, then suggested that Mulder might be able to help him unpack when he got home from work. William nodded. The moving men were already gone, and the boxes were stacked neatly in his room.
Avery came up behind him and commented in wonder that William had a lot of stuff, which made him laugh in spite of himself. Then he let Avery show him the empty room that was going to be his to sleep in when he was "a big boy." William got the oddest flash of insight, and came away with the impression that the toddler thought having his own room was connected to being potty trained. He shrugged; that sort of flash was nothing unusual.