Disclaimer. I don't own the X-Files. All recognisable characters belong to Chris Carter and Tenthirteen productions. I own new characters like Lucy Mulder. Please review.
After Dark.
It was already dark when Bill Scully left. The relief on Scully's face was clear as she watched his car leave the driveway.
"You ok Scully?"
"Yes." Dana stared straight ahead as Mulder waited. He still didn't really know why his brother in law had turned up so unexpectedly but he knew there was not going to be a good explaination for it. Bill Scully hated him. He had always blamed him for Melissa's death and even now he blamed him for Scully getting into all the trouble she had. He stared at the floor. That was the one thing they agreed on. If Scully had never joined the X-Files there was a good chance she would have either been an Assistant Director or gone on to have a career in science or medicine. He still didn't understand what had made her stay with him, but he was glad she ahd.
"Dana?" He wrapped his arms around her waist and froze as she tensed in his arms.
"When Bill was here, Monica called."
"Oh."
"So when were you going to tell me?"
"I."
"Because you are going back? Aren't you? I know you Mulder, there is no way you would rest knowing someone else was running the X-Files. Not now, what with 2012 just around the corner." Scully almost spat the words out.
"Skinner called me earlier today. Asked to meet."
"I see."
"Said he had talked to Doggett and Reyes."
"She's going back, you know that? I mean she called here and thought we already knew. That we had already agreed." Dana folded her arms.
"I can't go back there without you." Mulder watched as Scully closed her eyes.
"After everything we went through. All those years. All that time hiding in shadows, in the darkness." She sighed as Mulder waited. She knew he desperately wanted to go back to the basement where everything began.
"I know." He sighed.
"Mulder if I do this." She paused. "If I do this, the children have to be safe."
"Goes without saying."
"I mean it Mulder." She stared at him as he smiled at her.
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"You spoke to Dana?" John walked to the oven as Monica nodded.
"Earlier, after Skinner left."
"And?"
"I don't think Mulder had spoken to her." Monica sat at the kitchen table watching the ex marine cook. He lifted a lid on a pot and pulled a face. Monica couldn't help but smile as he hurridly took the pot off the hob.
"Skinner seemed pretty insistant that it was all of us or none of us." Doggett turned to her. "I mean, it'd be great to work with Dana again."
"I know, she really helped me when I arrived but since everything with William." Monica shook her head. She really wasn't sure that her friend would return to the X-Files. Not now that she had the children. She really wasn't sure that her fiance would either.
"Mon." He stared at the congealed contents of the pot as he spoke.
"I know." She started to speak as he abandoned the contents of the pan to the bin. "Shall I order pizza?"
"I think that's for the best." He gave in. John Doggett was not a natural cook. "Look, I joined theh X Files to look for Mulder, you replaced Dana when she went on maternity leave. Alot has happened since then."
"I know."
"We lost everything when we ran. We thought Skinner had been murdered. We really were the F.B.I.'s most unwanted. You want to go through that again?" He looked out into the darkness of the garden. He had no idea if he could put her through it again, if he could do it himself.
"Yeah." She touched his hand as he sighed. "But if none of that had happened then we wouldn't be here now. After everything we are still together."
"Mon. Do you have to see the bright side in everything?" He smiled at her.
"That's why you love me." Monica smiled as he stepped closer to her.
"One of the many many reasons." He pulled her to him as she kissed him. For the moment the burnt dinner and the X Files could wait.
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"So, what do I tell Skinner?" Mulder watched as his wife stood in the doorway of their daughter's bedroom.
"He has to personally guarentee my children will be safe. God Mulder I know Frohike, Byers and Langley faked their own deaths. I know Jimmy and Yve tried to keep the Lone Gunmen going but none of them are safe. The only reason we have been safe so far was because we helped in that case with the priest." Scully curled her nose as she remembered the vile man that had claimed he was psychic. The thought of him still made her skin crawl.
"I know, Skinner made things easier for us."
"After Kerch was found out to be the real traitor." Scully turned to him. "The children, they have to come first."
"Goes without saying Dana." She closed her eyes. Even now, after all the years together he rarely used her first name. She let her head rest against his chest as he puloled her into his arms. She knew that they would never be able to be free of the X-Files. "Come on. It wasn't all bad. Was it?"
"No." She mumbled into his shirt. "I could have lived without Krycheck and the Flukeworm."
He smiled as he kissed her hair. They were back. The X-Files were definately theirs. He just couldn't help but wonder why?
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A/N Please review.