A/N: Hi I am still writing these, I promise! School started though so they are going to published with less frequency, but they will be published! This is another prompt from tumblr user deanwincherter, the prompt was: "Cleaning out the closet: (IWTB): Mulder (or scully) decide to clean out the closet one day and find things that have been saved from their time with the FBI from what feels like a lifetime ago." I actually had a surprising bit of trouble with this one too, so I think I'll revisit it later.

A couple notes, if you've read my other story, It Starts with Coffee, this is set in the same head canon so there's a little treat if you liked that. Also, a similar thing happened in a fic written by dream1n9big called The Seventh Stage. It's much more extensive than this little drabble and I think it's written much better, so I would highly recommend it, especially if you like this. Enjoy:)

The Boxes in the Closet

It started off as just another day. Scully had her usual morning case of the grumpies that not even coffee could fix, and then after a quick good bye she was off to the hospital. Mulder was, as per usual, left to his own devices. Lately he had been particularly interested in indoor gardening, but first he always made rounds around their home to see if cleaning needed to be done. Scully loved having a clean house, therefore, so did Mulder.

Today was different though because he was going to begin the intimidating task of preparing the guest bedroom for Mrs. Scully's surprise visit in less than a month. Mulder hadn't visited the room since they first moved in, and even then he just popped in. He had seen Scully putting some boxes of stuff into the closet, when he had asked her what was in them she declined to give a real answer, and he didn't push it. Today he was finally going to see what was in them, not that the thought had always nagged at him or anything.

The door gave a soft creak when he opened it. He stepped inside and found it strange how different the air in the room felt compared to the rest of their well-loved home. It wasn't quiet like their bedroom or peaceful like their living room, it was just- silent.

He found it ridiculously unnerving.

When he opened the closet door he found a small brown moving box along with a shoe box on the floor. The moving box looked as though it had been opened, although not recently, while the shoe box had an unhealthy layer of dust on it. He began with the bigger box.

The first thing he found was The Great Mutato comic book. He smiled and remembered that case. He remembered how they danced together, and he remembered the smile on her face. Despite everything, in that one moment, together, they were really, truly, happy. She was radiant, smiling with her teeth and everything.

The next thing he found was a VHS tape. "Superstars of the Superbowls." It took him a moment to remember why Scully would have it in the box, but then he remembered. He could still remember how the relief flooded in when he heard that Scully had woken up from her coma. He had no idea that she had kept it all these years.

One by one he sifted through all the memories the box contained. He found the Apollo 11 key chain that he gave her for her birthday, Queequeg's dog collar, even the photo they took while they were undercover in that gated neighborhood.

There was only one thing he couldn't place. He could not for the life of him remember where the quarter fused with the penny had come from, so he attributed it to old age.

He carefully replaced each item in the box with reverence and moved on to the next box, just a small shoebox. He blew off the dust and hesitantly opened the lid. Inside was one item. When he saw it he felt as though his heart had dropped into his feet.

A baby hat with little bunny ears. He didn't have to be told who the hat's owner had been. He was torn. He wanted so badly to hold it in his hands, to feel the softness of the material, to hold it against his heart like he would've held William, to touch it to his cheek, to smell it, even though any of his scent would've been long gone by now. On the other hand though, looking at the little hat, it looked sacred. He could tell that Scully hadn't opened this box since she had put the hat in there and it felt wrong to disturb it without Scully being there. So in the end he left it.

He closed the lid and set the box next to the bigger one.

And he set about cleaning the room for Mrs. Scully, because there were good things to come.