Disclaimer: I don't own the X Files

Note: Kyouryoku Senshi thank you for being my beta!

Perfection

The day was beautiful, probably the most beautiful of the summer and Mulder smiled into the breeze as he watched Scully pulling William around the lake as his tiny arms hung on to a floating ring. His little feet kicked and splashed awkwardly in the water and his smile took up his whole face.

Mulder felt a tiny hand grab on to his and he looked down to see Annie putting a sand shovel in his hand. The three year old squatted next to him in the way that toddlers do and patted the sand as she babbled on. It was the perfect day.

Scully turned to smile at him and it took his breath away for a moment. She was in a black one piece and her red hair blew in the wind, as she looked his way.

He watched as she grabbed up William and tossed him gently into the water per his command. The five year old bobbed back to the top holding his nose as he also tried to doggy paddle. Scully laughed and took him up again and waited a moment before tossing him up again.

Their son had been taking swim lessons for about a year now and swam like a fish. He was brave in the face of any new challenge and after only a couple lessons, had jumped into the public pool without floties or warning and gave his mother a heart attack.

He didn't care if he couldn't swim yet, he believed he could, he didn't swim of course and Dana had slipped into the pool after him seconds after he hit the water.

Annie on the other hand, was much more careful. She preferred to study the water before she decided how she felt about it. For now, they had an uneasy alliance but she would never tolerate being thrown into the water. She preferred to stay on the sand and build castles with her daddy who she had proclaimed to be the best castle digger.

Her pale blond hair was pulled into a tiny ponytail on her head and she was covered from head to toe in sand.

The scene changed quickly to one of Mulder walking into a dark rustic room only lit up by a fire in the stone fireplace. He saw Scully sitting on the couch with a glass of wine. She looked up at him with a smile and pointed to a glass for him that was sitting on the end table. He took it and sat next to her, he put his arm around her and pulled her close.

"They asleep?" She asked quietly.

"They were out like a light before I even finished the book. We need to buy a pool." He smiled down at her.

"Amazing. Well we have so much time left in the evening. What to do…" she looked up with a smile and he took her wine glass and placed it on the table with his before he took her into his arms and laid her on the couch.

Life was perfect, he realized as he woke up the next morning to two laughing children crawling into the bed. His little girl crawled her way into his arms and clung to him as William jumped up and down proclaiming his desire to go to the beach.

Mulder laughed and pulled Annie closer to him. She was young enough still that a bit of her baby smell clung to her and it made Mulder's heart melt.

His son was his best friend, but he had known from the moment the doctor had said 'it's a girl' that he was a goner.

His eyes shot open.

This is too perfect. He thought as he watched Scully pull William down and begin to tickle him. Nothing has ever been this perfect for us. How did we get here? Where are we even? How do we have two children?

Questions ran through his mind and slowly the images in front of him began to fade away and he opened his eyes to see that he was in some sort of hospital room strapped to a cot.

He panicked and pulled at his restraints. A familiar voice stopped him, "Fox you are just going to hurt yourself. Please don't make this too hard."

"Diana?" He asked amazed as the woman he thought to be dead came into the room where he was being held.

"You do this every time you wake up Fox. Just stay calm and soon you will be back to the dream."

"Where is Scully?" He asked and then asked more fearfully, "Where's William?"

"Both are fine. Fox, your son is so special just like you and your father. He was made for great things, but I don't think that you and Scully were prepared to take on all of the prep and training that he would need."

"Where are they?" He asked ignoring her.

"Safe. Dana even has a new life. She remembers nothing Fox. You were not as easy to convince so we had to put you under."

"You're lying."

"I'm not saying she went willingly. I have a nasty bite mark she gave me, but after a few days of medication and hypnotism she has moved on."

Mulder didn't know what to say and wasn't even sure that he believed her. Images began to fill his brain and he started to remember.

He didn't know how long it had been since the night that he had woken to William's cries of pain but it felt like forever.

He remembered Scully succumbing to the same pain and he knew that he called Skinner but just got voicemail.

Then he remembered the cars pulling into their driveway and all of the armed men in black entering the house. He fought them off, but didn't have his gun. They carried William and Scully away easily as both were unconscious at that point.

Mulder fought until they knocked him out with a blow to the head.

He remembered them trying to convince him of a new life and make him forget his old one but it wouldn't take.

Since then, he had been in and out of a man made fantasy.

His heart hurt, as he fully understood that the life from the dream was all a beautiful lie. Part of him longed to go back, but he knew his real family was out there somewhere in trouble.

A doctor he didn't recognize came to his bedside with a syringe, "Relax Agent Mulder, soon everything will be alright again."

He heard Diana asking the doctor, "How does he keep waking up? I thought you said it was all ready."

"Well, every time he begins to question it, he wakes up. We might need to make the vision more realistic."

"But I want him to be happy."

"Well, apparently when he is too happy he knows that something is wrong. We can't just keep injecting him or he will build an immunity."

"Fine, I will have them tweak it a bit, but it better work."

"I make no promises, Ms. Fowley."

A man in a suit entered as the doctor left.

"I have a few things that you will need to change…"

The conversation began to fade as he started to lose control of his mind.

A few minutes passed before the man in the suit sat next to the bed, "Agent Mulder, I am going to take you to your happy place. A lake house with a beach…"