"Mulder, you really don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'd understand." Scully assured as they both walked into her room.
Mulder grabbed her hand so they were facing each other at the foot of her bed, "I want to Scully, okay? Who knows, maybe this will change you from a skeptic to a believer." He said with a small twinkle in his eyes.
Scully smiled at him and told him she'd change in the bedroom while he took the bathroom. Clarice had already fallen asleep in Scully's bed so all that was left to do now was for them to fall asleep. Scully threw on a tank top and sweats while Mulder wore an FBI t-shirt and matching shorts.
Scully was lying in bed gently stroking Clarice's hair when Mulder walked out of the bathroom. He silently took the other side of the bed.
"Scully." He said gently as he took hold of her hand, "No matter what happens tonight I want you to know that you are my partner, my best friend, and the only person I trust in the world. I want you to know that no matter what the way I feel about you won't change." Scully could tell he was talking about more than just a working relationship and the emotions that implication held forced her to only be able to nod her head in response.
"Good night Mulder." She whispered quietly after a minute.
"Night Scully." he responded reaching behind him to flick the lamp off.
It took them both only a few minutes to fall asleep. The past few days had been incredibly taxing on all three of the beds occupants and they had no issue falling fast asleep...
"Scully, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Mulder said as he regained his vision. He and Scully were somehow walking down a beach, hands clasped, and apparently following tiny foot prints.
"You don't think...?" Scully asked as she walked on in an amazed daze.
"Oh I so do." Mulder said with a smile as he squeezed her hand.
"How will we know when we get there?" Scully asked logically. Mulder remained silent for a minute until a house came into view. A big white house with black shutters that they both were inexplicably drawn towards.
"I think we're here Scully." He said as they started on the long walk from the beach to the house. Neither noticed that their hands remained clasped between them, or if they did they did not care. They finally reached the door and Mulder pulled it open letting Scully go in before him.
"I know you will find me Clarice, I just miss everyone so much." They heard Emily say as the two of them joined all the children in the front hall. Neither Emily nor Clarice noticed their entrance, but a little child that Scully and Mulder hadn't seen before perked up the second Scully walked into the room.
"Mama!" He yelled pushing himself off the floor and running as coordinately as a young child could towards her. Scully immediately fell to her knees on the floor and accepted the child in her arms as he ran straight into her yelling, "Hi mama!"
"William?" She asked as tears pooled in her eyes.
"Dada!" William announced as Mulder crouched next to Scully and gently placed his hand on her back.
"Hey buddy." Mulder said softly, "You having fun with your sisters?" He asked.
"Yeah dada." He answered as he leaned against Scully so he was still in her arms but facing his father.
"Mum?" Emily asked quietly, more than a little shocked that the two adults had just walked in. She thought that only she, Clarice, and William had the strange dream power.
"Emily?" Scully asked as she passed William to Mulder and walked over as the girl stood up. It only took a few seconds before Emily ran at her and collapsed into her arms sobbing, "What's wrong Em? Are you okay?" She asked panicking a little.
"I just missed you so much mum. I didn't know if I'd ever see you again!" Emily said frantically.
"God I missed you too Emily. More than I think you could imagine." Scully said. Emily may have been five years old but Scully still picked the girl up and cradled her in her arms. Scully held one arm out and Clarice walked to her mother's side, "Thank you sweetheart." She whispered in Clarice's ear as they walked over to join William and Mulder.
"You're welcome mom." Clarice said as the small group sat down. Emily sat next to Clarice and her mother while William was sandwiched between his parents.
They sat in the front hall of the house just talking for what seemed like hours about the most trivial things. William fell asleep after a little while cradled in his mother's arms while Emily leaned against her just seeking some comfort. Clarice was using Mulder as a pillow, which Scully had no issue with, she even sort of liked the picture it presented.
After a little while Clarice, Scully, and Mulder started to fade, almost giving Scully a heart attack. They quickly all said their goodbyes before they had faded out of the dream completely...
Scully slowly blinked her eyes open to see the room semi-lit up by the sun shining through the blinds. She, Clarice, and Mulder were still wrapped in each other's arms. She rolled onto her back so she was studying the ceiling and after a moment just whispered, "Holy shit."
"Believe me now mom?" Clarice asked as she cuddled into her mother's side.
"What time is our flight at?" Scully asked as she turned to face her daughter with a few tears in her eyes, "We gotta go save Emily."
A few hours later Scully, Clarice, and Mulder were walking away from the cemetery when suddenly Scully's arm was jerked roughly until she turned around.
"What do you think you're doing? Clarice will be leaving with me." The elderly woman said harshly.
"No Abigail, she won't be. Clarice is staying with me and I will be raising her from now on. We do not want to hear from you again." Scully said getting dangerously close to the older woman.
"Don't try and fight with me Dana, you will not win a custody battle." Abigail threatened.
"That's where you're wrong." Scully whispered, "I'm transferring so I'm only teaching a Quantico maybe even quitting, I have a steady home, I have a very positive male role model for Clarice, and I love her like you and Rickie never did. So I will fight you Abigail. And I will win. Don't you ever try and take my daughter away again." She threw back before whipping back around and walking straight to Mulder and Clarice. She wrapped her arm around Clarice and grabbed Mulder's hand as they started walking away.
"Do you think she's still gonna try and file for custody?" Clarice whispered quietly.
"If she does we will win. I promise baby, I'll never let anyone take you away from me again." Scully answered.
"Well ladies, I think we have a plane to catch, shall we?" Mulder asked once they'd reached the car. Both girls looked up at him with smiles and Mulder felt pure contentment exude from every cell in his body.
On the ride to the airport Clarice quickly fell asleep leaving Scully and Mulder virtually alone. "Scully, we haven't really gotten a chance to talk today." Mulder said carefully.
"Please tell me you experienced all the things that I did in that dream Mulder. I want it to be true so badly." She said only glancing at him nervously every once in a while.
Mulder looked over at his partner and gently lifted her hand off her lap so he could hold it tightly, "In my dream last night I met a little boy with red hair and green eyes. I can still hear him call me dada even though it's been hours. I realized that Emily looks so grown up and just like you and Clarice. And I realized that you looked so happy Scully. I don't think I have ever seen you that happy. I want you to be that happy every day." He said as he continued driving.
"As soon as I woke up I thought that my dream was to perfect to ever be true. I had everything I could possibly want. I have been trying to convince myself that it wasn't true so if it doesn't happen I'm not disappointed." She admitted as her fingers played with his on the center consul, "But I want it to be true so bad Mulder."
"I do too Scully, I have for a really long time." He said squeezing her hand tightly and looking over at her for a second.
"What are you saying?" She asked nervously. He couldn't possibly be saying what she hoped he was.
"C'mon Scully, you're gonna make me say it?" He teased. He looked over and saw her eyebrow raised and got his answer, "What I'm saying Scully is what we both feel. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I never want to go a day without seeing your smile. I want to help you raise all our children, even if some of them aren't mine. I'm saying that I love you Scully. I have for a very long time and I always will."
"I love you too Mulder." She whispered back quietly, "And I think the first thing we should do to make our dreams a reality is find Emily. We need to save our baby girl, then we can work on everything else."
"Baby steps." He said simply.
The airport was only about a half an hour's drive from the cemetery so Scully and Mulder only had a few minutes after their conversation until they had to wake Clarice up. One of the perks of being a federal agent was that they were pushed through customs quickly, and with minimal security checks, which was good because they were running late and would have otherwise missed the plane.
The trio quickly boarded and took their seats. Mulder next to the window, Scully in the middle, and Clarice on the aisle. As soon as the plane's engines started Mulder grabbed Scully's hand and tried distracting her with small talk.
"So, what do you think Skinner's gonna say?" He asked with a smirk.
Scully smiled as she thought about her boss's reaction, "I think we may hear something along the lines of 'What?' followed by 'Finally!'. What do you think?" She turned the tables on him.
"I think I'm gonna get one of those 'You hurt them, I hurt you.' speeches." Mulder said with a shrug.
Clarice quietly observed the adults as they lightly flirted. What changed while I was asleep?
"Skinner won't hurt you Mulder." Scully said rolling her eyes.
"Oh yes he will." Mulder said confidently, "He treats you like his daughter, which means that Clarice and Emily will be treated like granddaughters. He would most definitely hurt me."
"Why would he need to?" Clarice asked interrupting the conversation.
"Oh C'mon Claire, I thought you were the one in advanced Psych? You figure it out." Scully teased.
Mulder's eyes grew wide, "You're in advanced Psychology?" He asked happily.
"Yupp." She said proudly, "Only sophomore in the whole school to be taking it!"
"I majored in Psychology at Oxford." Mulder told her, equally as proud.
"So I got my new tutor." Clarice said with a little chuckle.
Scully looked over at Mulder and noticed over his shoulder that the plane had taken off already. That was the first time that she didn't have a mini panic attack when the plane was taking off.
"Hey Mulder." She whispered. He looked at her questioningly until she said, "We're in the air." With a huge smile. He smiled back at her and squeezed her hand. The three quickly settled in for the eight hour flight ahead of them.
"So mom, what's our plan?" Clarice asked after a couple hours.
Scully took a minute to organize her thoughts before answering, "Touch down in London and get a hotel for the night. Tomorrow morning we drive to Liverpool and start searching. That's about as far as I've gotten."
"Can I get you anything?" The stewardess asked as she came up to them. She glanced at each person in the little group.
Mulder looked at Scully and Clarice before answering her, "No I think we're alright."
"Okay then. Have a nice flight." she said way too chirpily before walking away. She threw the curtain to the stewardess station closed behind her as she approached the phone. The smile had fallen off her face. She dialed the number and listened to it ring as she held the device to her ear.
"Hello?" A man with an English accent answered.
"Jack? It's me, put him on." She said simply.
"Right away Ma'am." He said quickly.
"Rachel, is that you?" Another man asked.
"Yes sir. I have some news for you." She said quietly.
The line was silent for a moment, "Well what is it Rachel?" He asked exasperatedly.
"They are on the plane sir." She said.
"They?" He asked confused.
"You know sir, THEM..." she said stressing the word 'them' hoping he would understand.
"You don't mean..." he asked shocked.
Rachel sighed, "Yes sir, I do. Why are they here? What could they possibly know?" She asked.
"I don't know Rachel. Hell they could even just be on vacation. Just stay on alert." The man warned.
"Yes sir. You too." She said quietly before hanging up. Rachel looked through the curtain and surveyed the group. They were all smiling and laughing. She hoped they knew what they were doing...