The following day…
More than slightly dazed, Doggett wandered the baby department, picking up everything that was blue. Fortunately Mulder was there to put half of it back. Doggett barely noticed.
Sitting in Mulder's carriage, William observed Doggett's behavior with amusement. " Uncle John is funny, Daddy." Bill Scully Jr. had been outraged when he'd heard William refer to Doggett as "uncle" during the last family gathering so naturally, Mulder encouraged him to think of Doggett that way. Scully even thought of it as cute.
" Uncle John has not slept in two days." Mulder corrected. It was because of this that he'd volunteered to drive Doggett to do the shopping he had to do right that second, even though it would probably be almost a week before the babies came home from the hospital. The realization that they only had things for the girls seemed to be driving him crazy, so Mulder just rolled with it.
Mulder felt a small tap on his elbow. An elderly woman wearing a concerned expression peered up at him. " Is your friend all right?"
He gave her a crooked grin. " He and his wife were expecting twin girls. They had triplets, one of them a boy, instead. Surprise."
" Ah. That would come as quite a shock." She said with a smile, then wandered off.
Meanwhile Doggett was standing in front of a display, muttering " Bottles. Weren't gonna use them, now we've got to because women don't have three…"
Swooping into to the rescue before Doggett finished verbalizing his thought, Mulder pointed out where the newborn bottles were. Then he whispered to Doggett. " Formula or a breast pump?"
" Huh?" Doggett asked, clutching at several packages of bottles like they were a lifesaver.
" You need to buy one or the other." Mulder explained patiently. " You know, so there's something to go in the bottles."
" I don't know." Doggett looked close to tears.
" That's ok." Mulder told him, picking up a deluxe electric pump and canister of Enfamil. " If she just wants to use formula you can return the pump as long as it's not open. Exchange it for more formula."
" What if she doesn't want to use formula at all?" Doggett fretted.
" Oh, I'm sure it'll be used at some point. Baby-sitting or what-not."
Doggett didn't look like he thought the possibility of the babies ever having a sitter was plausible. " How do you know all this stuff?"
" Well, before I ended up having to leave, Scully and I thought I'd stay home with William after he was born, since she had a job, and I didn't. I read a lot of those books in the parenting section."
" I should remember this stuff better." Doggett insisted. " I've had a baby before."
" It's been a long time, and not everyone has a photographic memory." Mulder assured him. " It's normal to forget the ins and outs of babies. That's why people have more than one."
" We'd better not have any more…" Doggett grumbled.
" Blue! Blue, Daddy!" William shrieked when he caught sight of a toy display featuring the Nickelodeon icon. " I want Blue!"
" Three is probably enough for anyone." Mulder agreed, putting a Blue into the carriage. It wasn't a hill he wanted to die on, so he gave in without complaint. William instantly grabbed at the blue plush dog and hugged it to his chest. " Just think, in a couple of years they'll be William's age. And really really demanding." Mulder looked around, seeing if there was something Emily might like too if he was buying William a toy.
" Don't remind me!" Doggett groaned. The thought of three babies was overwhelming enough, he couldn't wrap his mind around the idea of three toddlers, three children or three teenagers.
Meanwhile…
" Emily? Emily!"
" I'm in the attic, Mom!" Scully resisted a sigh when her daughter's voice floated down to her. She'd been trying to figure out where the girl was for the past five minutes, and had been about to look outside.
Scully climbed the attic stairs and spotted Emily sitting on the floor in front of her old doll house. " Hey. What are you doing? I thought you liked the one we got you for Christmas better."
" I do. Remember how you said it'd be ok if I gave this away someday?"
" Yup." Scully said, sitting down on the floor next to her.
" Do you think Monica and John's babies would like it? Probably not Landon, but Jacey and Quinn?"
" Maybe someday, but they're way too little for a toy like this now." Scully pointed out.
Emily rolled her eyes. " I know that, Mom. I mean when they get big enough to play with toys like this without trying to eat the people and the furniture."
" They probably would like it." Scully agreed. " But what if you had a baby sister? Wouldn't you rather give it to her?"
" Are you going to have a baby?" Emily asked, wide-eyed.
" Not right now, no. But Daddy and I are thinking about it. We think it might be nice to have three kids, instead of just two. What do you think about that?" Scully asked. She and Mulder were fairly certain that they did want to try for a baby, but she wondered what the kids would think, mostly Emily since William was too young to have much of an opinion; at least one he could verbalize.
" I dunno."
" You don't know?" Scully teased, tickling her.
" No!" Emily giggled, worming away from her mother's fingers. " I've never had two brothers or a brother and a sister, so how could I know if I'd like it or not?"
" Now you sound like Daddy." Scully half laughed, half sighed.
" Good!" Emily exclaimed, launching a counter attack on Scully's ticklish back. " He's a good person to sound like."
" Just as long as you don't tell kids at school all about aliens." Scully cautioned.
" Oh Mom…"