"Can I see?" William asked quietly standing 6 feet behind her. She was curled up in the attic, holding something. Crying just as violently but with less volume. "Um... Mom?" Trying out the word on his tongue, it made her smile. He decided then and there to keep it. Walking closer he saw clutched in her hands, a crumpled child's drawing. He doesn't remember drawing that one. Maybe it was Emily, she's never thought about that picture. "It's ok Mom. You can show me." She passes him the paper over her shoulder not brave enough to show her face. "That's not what I meant." He said with a grin. He crawled around to sit on his knees unnecessarily close to her, but after a lifetime of separation he figured she wouldn't mind. He forced her eye gaze, and gently, like a feather, touched to her heart.
It was a group home, the same one he stayed at right after he was returned the first time. No parents, no possessions, only big stories about aliens and siblings and babies.
A little girl holding my hand. My little girl. She must be so scared. Emily is sticking close, hiding behind my legs, one hand gripping a couple of my fingers and the other the bottom of my skirt. The social worker is coming towards us. She can't take her. I won't let her. Smiling and winking at me, she crouches at my feet trying to maintain an eye line with Emily. And she wasn't having any of it. It made Scully smile. Scully turned around to face Emily. " oh look sweetie, is that colouring pencils? Maybe if you ask miss ... Really nicely she'll find us some paper." Looking around Emily got excited and headed excitedly over to the other end of the room. "She's just a little wary of strangers. Not that I'm not a stranger, I only found out she existed on Christmas Eve." Smiling genuinely at Scully, "Why don't you head on over to her and I'll get us all some paper."
"Are you my real momma?" Emily asked her as she takes a seat. Scully nearly falls. "Eerrr. Yeah kiddo I am. Is that ok?" She asks not sure she should have revealed this information. "Yeah, o'course. Do I get o go to my real home soon?" These little innocent blue eyes, their colour has never faded, nor their hope drained. "Well." Scully starts unsure of how to do this without attracting suspicion from the social worker. "I don't get to decide that. The woman bringing the paper has to tell a big fancy judge that you'll be safe and happy with me." Emily looked at her perplexed. "Can't I tell the big fancy judge?" Scully smiled, this beautiful little girl wanted so much to help. "No sweetie, how about you and I just play together so she can see how much I love you." Emily smiled, her infectious hope filling the room.
The social worker returned mere moments later watching as Emily crawled forward over the pencils and crayons to hug her mother. "Here we go ladies. I got lots of paper so we can make lots of pictures."
"Isn't that lovely Emily." Grinning she took a single sheet from the lady. "What do you say?"
"Thank you miss..." Emily replied in a sing song voice.
She surveyed the colours in front of her carefully finally selecting a dark shade of green. Scully and the social Worker had followed suit selecting a light blue and bright orange respectively. Emily had drawn a small elongated circle near the centre of the page when the social worker asked, "So honey, what did you and Dr Scully talk about while I was gone?" She looked up at her mother in fear, finding reassurance she said quietly. "I asked her when I can go home." The little girls eyes bounced back to her mother before they began to water. "She said that you haf to tell a big fancy judge that I'll be safe and happy before I can see my real home."
"You're real home?" The lady enquired, her tone riddled with suspicion.
"Yeah, not my home with Mommy and Daddy but the one with my looks like Momma." She looked at Scully, tears wetting her paper before returning to her task.
Glancing back at the crumpled paper between them, William can make out two distinct shapes. One much taller than the other with orange hair and both with blue eyes. Her shaking has settled a little since William made contact.
"She doesn't remember that part. She remembers drawing a potato that day, but I've never seen this one." William says with a smile. With her free hand, Scully reaches forward to brush his face with her fingers.
"I can show you some of mine with Emily. Memories I mean." Heading to the trap door to retrieve his folio he adds, "I can show you she was happy." In his haste to find the right drawing, he missed his mothers smile.
"That would be really lovely, but I think some food might be in order first." He heads off towards the exit content in knowing he made some small difference.
Mulder had been gathering some of their things into a bag, passports, birth certificates, a couple of pairs of clothes each, college degrees, old photos. He was so deep in thought, attempting to process all that had happened in the last twelve hours he hadn't heard her come to the door.
"I'm gonna make William and I something to eat if you'd like to join us." Closing the bag carefully and pulling it over his shoulder he smiled, following her downstairs to the kitchen. They find William sitting at the kitchen table, folio open, drawing.
"Wow kiddo, you're really good." Mulder exclaimed as Scully started moving around the kitchen gathering supplies.
"Thanks, sometimes I've just gotta get the details out of my head you know? So I learnt to draw them, that was before I could just show it back."
"You can't learn that, it's a gift." He continued as he began flipping through his sons collection of work.
"I guess I've just got really steady hands." Scully and Mulder chuckled together until Mulder came across a collection of portraits, one of which caught his unreserved attention. Cancer Man, CGB Spender, his biological father. His sneering face staring back at him. "How do you know this man?" Mulder asked fearful of the response.
"Oh Spender. He runs the facility. He's the one that insists the Scully experiment continues. I'm not sure if he knows what Emily really gets up to in the lab but he comes to every one of our tests." William paused staring at the cold eyes of the picture. "I hate that man. He's in the book a few times, sometimes more detailed than others. I've gotta get him outta my head before I sleep or I have nightmares." Me too kiddo. Mulder thinks to himself. "Do you know him?" William has known for a long time that Spender is his grandfather, but he can't be sure his dad knows. Mulders face goes pale at the question, Scully answers. "Yeah, we investigated a lot of Spender's... Let's call them affairs, back in the day." Scully answered, determine not to frighten her son or distress her partner. "He also happens to be my biological father." Mulder adds softly.
"Oh good." Their son sighs. "I was really worried I was gonna have to be the one to tell you." He leans forward across the table and audibly whispers "He tries to make us call him grandpa. The little ones do to avoid the beatings, but their concept of family is a little skewed." He relaxes back into his chair a bit "Emily says she'd rather the beatings and I just refuse to talk to him."
Scully nearly drops the dish she's holding. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything." William adds shyly.
He turns the page for his Dad, he knows a family photo is on the next page and that should cheer him up. "These are your children." He tells his father carefully.
Mulders lips curl into a smile. "Sorry son, there is something they were missing. They can't be mine because kiddo, I hate to tell you so soon, but unless my biology was directly involved, which I wasn't, these kids can't mine." William just smiled. He had undertaken a two month crash course in human reproduction. "Dad I know how it works.. Mostly." The more he thought about the more he realised he didn't know how conception happened naturally. "I know how babies are made. I delivered my first when I was 8." He laughed at the expressions plastered across his parents faces. "Someone had to deliver Scully 4. And it sure as hell wasn't gonna be Spender. And aunt Samantha had been teaching me anyway..." William drifted off with a peaceful smile. "It's really like magic. Emily was being so brave. She kept telling me to think happy thoughts. That became my happy thought, because after hours and all at once, I was holding my baby brother in my arms and he was covered in blood and screaming. But he was alive and safe and I couldn't have asked for anything more." His mom has lost the look of horror that had riddled her face when he mentioned that Emily had been the Surrogate and turned into small pensive smile.
"It's like magic. Like the whole world is missing, and it's just the room, the pressure and this tiny baby." They all stay quiet for a moment. Silent until William remembers the point of sharing such vivid memories. "Emily actually told me not to show you this, but I figure I can just show you the happy bits." He beckoned for his mother and held their hands, one a top the other, cupping his face.