"Mommy..." William whispered, as he crawled up onto the bed between his parents and softly brushed Scully's long red hair off her face and out of her eyes "It's time to wake up, Mommy"

"Shh! Come here, buddy. Mommy and I were up very late last night... she just needs to sleep a little bit longer. OK?" Mulder said, voice husky and quiet as he patted William's flannel Pokémon pajama clad arm and back.

He would never grow tired of the feeling of his son breathing in and out, in and out... which in turn was proof of his and Scully's undeniable love. William was the embodiment of how pure their relationship had been in the past, currently was and always would be in the future. He was their future! So full of life, so full of potential... and safe from the worries of the life they used to lead as FBI agents back in the day.

"Mm, but why?" William carefully turned around to face his father, nose scrunched up and a million questions in his ocean colored eyes.

Mulder lifted the doona (and sheet) up so William could wriggle down under the covers and cocoon himself between both of his parents. He was the whole to their two halves made complete. The perfect combination of all of their best (and if we're being honest - their worst) qualities.

"Because..." Mulder stated quietly, as William cuddled up against his warm, bare chest (after quickly drying off, he had only managed to pull on pair of grey boxer briefs before crashing next to Scully on their large comfortable bed) "we love her, remember? And she deserves to sleep in once and a while for taking care of us, don't ya think?"

"She's the bestest Mommy in the whole wide Universe!"

"I concur, and we're very lucky to have her..."

William yawned unexpectedly and his eyelids fluttered shut very briefly, then snapped open again just as quickly.

"Are you still sleepy, Will?" Mulder asked, smiling and mussing his son's unruly auburn hair.

"Mhm, I dreamed I was lost on a farm again..." William blinked rapidly, recalling the semi-recurring dream he'd been having over recent months "and when I woke up, it was dark and I was alone"

"Ishy was with you though, right?"

"Yeaah, but you and mommy were gone. And I got scareded- don't tell mommy!"

"I won't. I'm sorry we scared you..." Mulder felt terrible, and of course Scully was right to be worried about leaving him alone, even for a short period of time and even though they were still close by "I just wanted to do something nice for mommy. Something special, to show her how much we really appreciate her"

"What did you do?" William wondered, curious about the events that he had missed while he was asleep.

"Why don't we wait until mommy wakes up, huh? But I really think that she will want to tell you herself"

"Mmm, what are you boys talking 'bout so early in the morning?" Scully breathed out, eyes still closed as she stretched her legs to workout the kinks that had been made during the previous nights shenanigans down on the beach. She was wearing Mulder's old Knicks tee which rose up, revealing a pair of black cotton boy-leg underwear and she immediately yanked the shirt down again to cover herself up. It was all she had managed to slip into before crawling into bed exhausted.

"It's..." Mulder craned his neck to check the alarm clock on the nightstand "9:47, Scully. Jesus, when was the last time we slept in this late on the weekend?" and laughed.

"Never?" Scully sighed softly, eyes flickering open slowly (struggling against the intense morning sunlight) as she turned to face Mulder and William.

"WAKE UP MOMMY!"

"Oof. Volume, Will. Remember?" Mulder cringed and rubbed his temples, trying to stop the beginnings of a champagne induced headache from forming before he could down some aspirin.

"I'm awake, baby. Tell me, did you sleep OK?" Scully cooed, carefully brushing William's messy auburn hair out of his ocean colored eyes and off of his freckle dotted face so she could see him better.

As much as Mulder had insisted that William would be OK without them, as much she enjoyed being with Mulder and not getting interrupted every three and a half minutes (yes, she had it timed at this point), she had still woken up worried about leaving their six year old alone in the house for as long as they did while they spent some much needed private grown up time together.

William rested his tiny hand on her cheek (mimicking the placement of his mother's hand on his), staring so deeply into her icy blue eyes that Scully felt it (actually felt it in her soul - the connection that had formed between them while he was growing inside of her - that she almost cried right then and there) and furrowed his brow at her before looking over at his father who winked to show that he would keep the secret about his dream being scary, and then nodded enthusiastically in response.

"See? Will is big enough to look after himself..." Mulder tickled his son, mercilessly, to break the confusing (to him, anyway) tension that had quickly built up in the master bedroom "might even be able to live on his own soon, right?" he finished, suddenly lifting up William's pajama shirt and blowing a raspberry on his belly.

"Stop... STOP STOP STOP!"

William began to laugh, kicking his legs wildly and reaching his arms out towards his mother in a futile attempt to escape his father's grasp and snuggle up to her instead but Mulder refused to let go of him and rolled them closer to Scully, gathering the both of them into a great big family bear hug and making William giggle more. Scully scooped William into her loving arms and kissed his forehead, repeatedly until he tried to pull away from her too.

"Uh huh..." William mumbled, breathlessly and suddenly remembered that he wanted all of the details about what his folks were upto while he slept "Wha- what was the special surprise... that daddy made for you?" he puffed out.

"Well, you know how Aunt Monica and Uncle John are married?" Scully asked, not entirely sure if William really understood the concept of marriage at this tender age, considering they weren't married themselves (therefore, never spoke about it) and the fact that the only wedding they had ever been to as a family was that of their former fellow agents at the FBI who they were still extremely good friends with, Monica Reyes and John Doggett.

William was 18 months old, when John and Monica got married in a quiet little ceremony at a D.C. courthouse with only Scully and Mulder there as their witnesses (the reception was the following weekend with other friends and family on a beautiful piece of land that was set up for such events) and they wanted him to be their ring bearer. So Scully had put him in a little suit and they all watched him toddle over (with Mulder following closely behind in case he fell or took off, potentially ruining the moment) with bated breath as Mulder slipped the rings into his tiny, chubby hand at the last minute to handover to the soon-to-be newlyweds.

"Yeah..." William said, skeptically.

"Would you like it if daddy and I were married too? We could have a party... invite your cousins, aunts and uncles and grandma, of course!"

"YEAH! Do I get presents?" William asked, rather seriously, cracking Mulder up.

Scully grinned (utterly amused by the thought process of a six year old), leaning a tiny bit closer to William and placed a gentle kiss on his sweet little cheek.

"It will be a very special day for you too, so I think we could arrange that. Would you walk me down the aisle, because grandpa isn't able to?" Scully said, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes at the thought of her dearly departed father - William Scully Sr. For whom son was named, at least partially.

"Yes!" William went quiet for a moment, thinking it over some more and then smiled "Can Ishy do something important at the party?" he finally asked.

Ishmael quietly nosed the door to their master bedroom open at the sound of his name and slowly padded over to the side of the bed, barking softly at them - almost like he understood what had been asked and was agreeing to participate.

"Maybe. I suppose we'll have to think of something for him to do, yeah?"

"Yay! I love you, mommy!" William beamed, still firmly squished in between his folks who had started to make moon eyes at each other for reasons that were completely lost on him.

"I love you too, Will" Scully smiled down at him, arms protectively wrapped around William. Sometimes, if she tried really hard Scully could still smell that newborn smell wafting from the crown of his head and it would inevitably melt her heart all over again.

Mulder had been, surreptitiously, tracing circles on Scully's hipbone for... oh, the last five minutes of this distinctly G rated conversation and she had been doing a really fantastic job of ignoring the feelings that it was stirring up in her lower belly because their young son was there. She shot him a warning look over the top of William's head, but Mulder didn't stop. Apparently, it had turned into a game for him and Scully was now thinking of ways to pay him back, tenfold.

William scrambled out from between them as they kissed above him, and followed Ishmael back into his room. Or so Scully hoped, because she was busy at the moment and didn't want to have come downstairs to a mess or them missing from the house all together.

"So... what do you say, Scully? Are you ready to officially become Mrs Spooky?" Mulder questioned as he lightly ran his right hand over Scully's Ouroboros tattoo (still in awe, after all of these years), lifting her thigh over his and grabbing her arse roughly.

"Hmm..." Scully sucked thoughtfully on her bottom lip, weighing up her options and dragging her answer out, intentionally trying to make Mulder nervous (it was only fair, she thought wickedly) "Was there really any other way this was going to end?" she raised her left hand, the newly minted sapphire and diamond engagement ring... watching as it shimmered and sparkled in the sunlight.

Yeah, there was definitely no other way to begin the next chapter of their lives together.

"Oh, that... was so... mean. Come here, gorgeous!"

Scully giggled, while pressing her - now humming with desire - body against his burgeoning hardness, carefully nudging her head over onto Mulder's pillow and kissed him with almost fifteen years worth of anticipation and longing... and love, of course!