Early one morning the sun came out

I was laying in bed

Wonderin if she'd changed at all

And if her hair was still red

-Bob Dylan

He was seated at his customary seat, next to Scully's bedside. Since her ninth month, they had placed her on her side for most of the day. Mulder found it a bit macabre, they way they had her positioned made it seem as though she was merely sleeping.

But she wasn't.

"This is getting old Scully." He bit out angrily at the comatose woman. The wastebasket at his feet was overflowing with sunflower seeds. Months ago, the staff had placed a note on the waste receptacle, just a gentle reminder…

Please Place Sunflower Shells Here.

Subtle, Mulder laughed about as subtle as bullets and Mom Scully.

She was becoming relentless in her demand. He knew there were decisions to be made, and that he had responsibilities to attend to., But there were responsibilities here in room 1013, and hundreds of questions with no answers.

Truth be told, he wised the baby would die. Not that he would say this out loud, especially not to Maggie. She was actually looking forward to this travesty. He had found her in the little chapel of the Center, lighting a little pink candle every night. He hated that fucking pink candle. If he had no love for Maggie's he would have sneaked in behind her each nite and smashed the damn thing into fragmented pieces. But that would be unstable, wouldn't it?

No one had expected her to make it to nine months. The staff of nurses and health care professionals liked to come up behind him in her room, smiling and saying how it won't be long now. How had everyone decided that he would be happy? They didn't know he was a rapist, the perpetrator of a horrible crime against the only person he had in the world that was not ready to have him committed. She lay there like Snow fucking White on her bed day in and day out not having any control of anything. It was hard at first to watch them as they cleaned her catheter and did her personal care every day. It sickened him that she had to have someone one come and do these things for her.He had a small fantasy of her awakening right in the middle of it one day, kicking the hell out of the nurses. It was one of the few things that kept him going.

That and the notion that once the situation was gone, she would magically awaken and all would be well…sort of. Truth be told, he wised the baby would die. Not that he would say this out loud, especially not to Maggie. It would solve most of the issues, either in utero or still born either way would work. He had never made it a secret how he felt about the baby, but Maggie, she had decided things for them that he could not abide to. Basically she expected him to take the baby home and pretend like this was a positive.

Maggie had lost her mind and done the ultimate one day, not a month ago. He had given Maggie the key to his apartment; she was good for picking up an extra pair of clothes, or feeding his fish on her way back and forth to the hospital. And anyway what the hell, Scully wasn't using it. He'd come home, innocuously enough, on a Saturday night late; visiting hours usually went until 9, but the bar kept different visiting hour—much later ones.

Being drunk, he initially assumed he had stumbled into the wrong apartment, and was vaguely reminded of an incident with the mysterious water bed. He knew something was up when he didn't trip over the pile of old running shoes and paranormal periodicals that were usually embedded in front of the hallway.

He did what any paranoid FBI agent would do in the face of possible intrusion. He drew his weapon. "I'm a federal agent." He screamed to no one. Poised with his Sig out in front of him he traipsed through the entire apartment. When he got to the bedroom, what had gone on struck him like a ton of asphalt. The whole place was clean—pristine; it had the Scully seal of approval written all over it.

"What The Fuck?" he looked around his once bachelorized apartment. There were floors here, things not seen before even in the light of day. He had heard rumors that the walls were white, but NEVER once imagined that the truth was out there.

And there was evidence of Pepto Bismal being splotched strategically around the apartment. On closer inspection he realized the Baby Faeries had infiltrated his lines of defense and nerfized his world. Bottles, blankets, towels, bunnies, booties, and God, even a pink crib, he couldn't take it. "it's a good thing I sleep on the couch" he thought as he closed the door to his room, reminding to get enough clothes out for a while. They could have at least surprised him like any one else, but he thought on hindsight he probably would have fired. That would have been bad—very bad. It was too much.

Her bed was empty. He knew he was late that day coming in. Skinner had dragged him into his office for the millionth time since Scully's sleeping Beauty act begin. And as if the kiss from true love jokes in the break room weren't juvenile enough, Skinner had more questions for him than he had himself.

The worst part about this was she had prophesized her name on an xfile for the fourth time. And she was. Skinner wanted more clarification, Mulder just wanted her awake. For an instant he believed that was what happened, that she had woke up kicked everyone's ass and run off for his place.

"Excuse me," He asked the receptionist at the desk" My partner was in that bed.. "S Truth be told, he wised the baby would die. Not that he would say this out loud, especially not to Maggie.

he wrinkled her nose, he was a funny one she thought he always referred to her as his partner as if they were a gay couple. "No one called you?" she asked with a little more annoyance than she meant to.

"Is everything all eight is she..."He had gone into full panic mode now.

"Mr. Mulder, calm down they took her over to Georgetown general to" He was off; the receptionist finished the sentence to the closed elevator doors.

Maggie was accustomed to seeing Fox in a rage, she had gotten used to it especially when it came to her daughter. The only thing that surprised her was that he never mentioned her and the boys midnight raid into his apartment. They didn't expect a thank you, not with everything that was going on, but she did expect to get some kind of rise out of him. Instead, a week later, while cleaning out her purse, she found a check made out to her a very generous one. Sighing she figured that was as close to acceptance as anyone was gonna get from Fox Mulder.

"Where the hell is she?" He blustered,. Bill was ready to fly up and hit him, but Charlie held his arm out shaking his head. He kind of felt for the guy. For a split second he was sure he was gonna open fire right there in the room.

"Fox you need to relax, Dana is fine"

"Is she awake?" he raged.

"No" she admitted with the patience of a saint. This man had the worst case of denial she could ever believe.

"Then she is not fine." He stormed back and forth over the pink carpet of the waiting room.

"I'll take you to see her." She sweetly added. As she walked down the hall, he followed close behind her fuming inwardly. How can you protect someone from their own family.

Maggie stopped in front af a large wood door, and motioned for him to enter. Scully lay there in her previous state, in hospital gowns and tubes and wires,and there was something else there too.

There, next to her bed was this tiny little bed that had a small pink little creature in it. The nurse smiled at him when he noticed the baby there. Wordlessly as if on cue from Maggie, she picked the bundle up and handed it to Mulder.

He didn't want to take it, but instinctively held his arms out to accept the little doll. Red fuzz covered her head, when she opened her big blue eyes and saw his face, she opened her pouty mouth and protested.

"Hey Little Scully" he smiled.