"Go change. Hurry"

"Ok, Mommy"

William raced up to his room, to change into his swimming clothes and Mulder followed Scully up to their bedroom. Before Scully could shimmy out of her denim short shorts, Mulder grabbed her by her hips and pulled her to him.

"I like these..." Mulder tugged on the denim shorts "You should wear them more often"

"Thanks. Yeah? ", Scully looped her arms around Mulder's neck, stood on her tip toes and kissed him.

"Oh yeah", Mulder grinned against her lips.

Scully found her bikini, and went to the bathroom to change into it. Mulder just stood in the middle of their room, entranced, until he heard Scully coming back out of the bathroom and he quickly grabbed his board shorts and pulled them on.

"Ready?", Scully smiled.

"Uh, yeah", Mulder said, ogling her.

Scully was carrying a beach bag full of towels, extra clothes (if needed) and a book to read, hung over her right shoulder. She was holding William's hand, who was lugging a boogyboard along behind him. Mulder was walking beside them, a gigantic rainbow colored beach umbrella leaning against his broad chest and a fold out chair in his free hand.

The sand was warm between their toes and they could hear the sound of crashing waves hit their ears, every few minutes. Mulder was shirtless, and in a pair of red board shorts. William was wearing black board shorts and a short sleeved, dark purple rasher.

They'd just stepped off the bottom plank of the stairs, when suddenly William let go of Scully's hand, chasing after Ishmael and ran off towards the shoreline, a half a mile away.

"Will, come back! You need to put sunblock on or you'll burn", Scully shouted at their wayward son.

"OK!"

William planted himself to the spot he landed (Ishy running circles around him, guarding him) when he heard his mother yell for him to come back, and waited for both of his parents to catch up. They looked at each other, their unspoken communication kicking in; this kid was only going to become more difficult to handle as he got older.

Scully pulled a large beach blanket from the bag, threw it put on the ground and watched as Mulder planted the umbrella in the sand.

"Stand still, it's not going to be even if you keep wriggling", Scully pushed William's arms down by his sides, massaging sunblock into them and then wiped her slimey hands on his face.

"Yuck!", grimaced William.

"Yuck? Okay, I'm done. Go...", Scully smiled and patted his back "have fun but be careful and stay close to the shoreline, please?"

William ran off again, Ishmael hot on his heels... barking, happily.

Mulder unfolded the beach chair, put a towel over it (for Scully) and then sat down on the blanket next to her. Scully searched the beach bag for a book to read, opening it to the last page she was on (occasionally, looking up to see William frolicking in the foamy, calm surf) while Mulder stretched out on his back a beach blanket between him and the hot sand. Ishmael was sitting next to him, panting, after following Will to the water and bolting back, at Mulder's whistle.

"Keep an eye on William, will you? I don't want him going too far out, he's not the best swimmer", Scully asked, patting Mulder's hand that was resting on her upper thigh.

"Sounds like swimming lessons are in his future. Don't you miss when he was portable, and couldn't run off without us noticing?", Mulder quipped.

"No, because I had to carry him everywhere. It was tiring, Mulder", Scully bemoaned, brows furrowed.

"It's only gonna get worse, isn't it?"

Scully nodded.

"Yes. You're going to worry about him for the rest of your life"

Scully was relaxing on the fold out chair, reading 'Beautiful Wasps Having Sex' by Dori Carter. Mulder was laying on a beach towel next to her, keeping an eye on William in the surf.

"MOMMY! LOOK!"

William was riding his boogyboard back to shore on a small wave. Scully smiled, widely and waved at him, to let him know that she saw him. Ishmael ran towards the surf, to greet William.

"THAT WAS AWESOME, WILL!", Mulder called out and touched Scully's thigh, smiling at her.

"Can you go ask Will if he's ready for lunch?"

"On it, gorgeous"

Scully smiled.

Mulder stood up, and walked over to the patch of sand that William had set up as his own.

"Hungry, bud?", Mulder crouched down near William.

"Yeah"

"Let's go. You can leave your toys there, I'll keep watch"

Mulder took the lids off a variety of a small containers full of cheese, salami, fruit and avocado dip. Scully tore open a bag of crackers, and spread them out on a plastic display plate.

"Did you have fun?", Scully handed William a grape flavored juice box "It looked like you were having fun!"

"Yeah!", William smiled and stuck the straw into his juice box.

Mulder and William were tucking in, and Scully was just eating crackers with avocado dip.

"Salami?", Mulder dangled a slice of salami from his fingers, offering it to Scully.

Scully shook her head, and forced a smile. Mulder wondered what was up, but didn't press the issue. In the past, Scully had in indulged in some interesting, to say the least, fad diets. Including bee pollen yogurt.

"You should take that off..", Mulder pointed at the linen slip covering Scully "and try to get a tan"

Scully was wearing a teal colored bikini, with a white see through linen slip over the top. Mulder assumed the slip had more to do with modesty than age, because she was only 43 and still unbelievably, smoking hot. He would open up an X File on it, if they were still FBI agents.

"A tan?", Scully questioned, incredulously.

"Seriously? Scully, you're a babe!", Mulder opened a bag of sunflower seeds, popped one in his mouth and smiled.

"Yeah. Mommy, you're SO pretty", William smiled.

Scully's heart melted. Compliments weren't normally her thing, but when Will would tell her she looked pretty or that he loved her, it was everything.

"See? Will agrees with me! Take it off", Mulder started pulling at the slip.

"Nope...", Scully hugged it tighter to her body "and you can't make me. Plus, I'd probably burn"

"Sorry. As long as that's the only reason...", he looked at her pointedly, trying to make sure nothing else was the matter"if it's possible, you're even more gorgeous than when we met and I personally think, that you should flaunt it"

Scully readjusted the braid that was hanging over her left shoulder and a small smile graced her lips.

"That's sweet, really. I'm fine" , Scully ran her tongue across her plump, red bottom lip, in that way that turned Mulder on.

William was shaking Ishy's paw, not even paying attention to the unspoken conversation. Mulder stood up, then immediately dropped to his knees and kissed Scully, softly, on the cheek.

"Good...", Mulder turned back to William "Hey, Will. Wanna help me build a sandcastle?"

"Okay, Daddy. Can Ishy help us?", William grinned.

Scully watched as Mulder, William and Ishmael walked back over to the spot where all the toys were deposited earlier.

"Another level?", Mulder asked, surprised. The castle was almost as tall as Ishy, but William wasn't finished yet. He wanted a moat too.

"Yeah...", William raised his arms above his head "I want it to be this high"

Mulder laughed.

And they filled three different shaped buckets up with handfuls of sand and began creating the giant multi-layered castle of William's dreams.

Scully put her book down, and watched on happy and amused by her boys.