a/n: sorry for the wait, but here's a long one :)
"Dana! My hair won't stay in the donut!" Megan cried with evident frustration in her voice. In her head, Scully counted down from three to when the little girl would come running into the living room where she was helping Zach put on his Luke Skywalker costume. Right on cue, she came flitting into view with a hairbrush in her hand, Scully's previously secure bun on top of the girl's head having been dismantled. And she had no doubt it was due to Megan's tendency to touch things that Scully told her not to.
"What happened baby?" Scully finished securing the belt around Zach's middle. He was at once off to grab his light saber toy, swinging it around the room in a way that made Scully wince.
"It just fell," Megan explained, looking close to tears.
"I see."
"Can you fix it? I can't be Tinkerbell if my hair's not poofy."
"I can," Scully smiled at Megan's seriousness, taking the hairbrush from her hands and turning the girl around.
"You're the best Dana. I've never been Tinkerbell before."
"You'll be the perfect Tinkerbell. As long as you keep your hands away from your hair. Promise?" Scully told her as she finished pinning the sides of the little girl's bun down.
"I wish I could be Tinkerbell every day," Megan had obviously not been paying attention to what Scully said, instead admiring her sparkly green shoes with the signature Tinkerbell puffs on the toes.
Wish. Over the past few days, Scully wished she'd never heard of the word. Not only had it cost her some reputation points in the eyes of her medical colleagues, she was getting annoyed with the woman Mulder called a jinn. The woman, whatever she was, was causing Mulder an undue amount of stress as well. Skinner had called her with some concerns just that afternoon, leading to an emergency checkup and him asking if she remembered vanishing from the Earth. Scully could admit that after seven years, Mulder's theories were starting to influence her. She considered herself more open-minded than she had been at the beginning of their partnership. But that woman was not a genie, that she was sure of, and she most certainly had not caused everyone on Earth to vanish for an hour.
XXX
"You caused everyone on Earth to vanish for an hour."
"How else are you going to get world peace?"
Mulder sighed heavily, his belief that he could attempt to negotiate with Jen quickly vanishing.
"I know you've been around a long time, and you haven't seen the best of humanity. But I promise that one person can do something selfless for another person, or even for the entire human race."
"Oh really? You mean to tell me that your wish for world peace wasn't based in some desire to make your own life easier?" Jen countered.
"Just because it would have benefitted me doesn't mean that it wasn't a good deed."
"But it wasn't selfless."
"What would you consider selfless?"
Jen thought, but ultimately gave him her signature sly smile as a response. He was a mere human. She wasn't going to stoop to his level, which effectively proved her point that mankind was not able to be helped.
Mulder, though, did some thinking of his own. Jen had wished for her powers, she'd told him. And though she couldn't undo what had been done, maybe he could. Maybe he could stop the madness.
"Would it be for me to set you free?"
She had never expected a human to ask her that question. Trying to remain characteristically stoic, Jen shrugged.
"It would solve a lot of future problems."
"Then that's it. That's what is going to have to be done."
Jen couldn't hide her disbelief there. It could all be over, her years of slavery. She could finally have that cup of coffee at a bistro, watching the world go by, all the while knowing that she was not responsible anymore. She could have the life that was robbed from her.
Mulder saw that she was about to make it so, but he put his hand on her shoulder first.
"Wait a minute."
She knew it was too good to be true.
"You met my partner, Dana Scully."
"Mmm, yes. Lovely lady," Jen said sarcastically. Mulder made a face that told her to watch it.
"She's… she's been through a lot. With me."
"I sense another 'selfless' aspiration coming on."
"I'm going to let you go. I was just wondering… she really wants to be a mom. I mean, she's kind of a mom now, but she isn't able to have children of her own. Is there anything you can do? I'm not asking to change the terms of our agreement, I'm just asking, is there someone else we can consult or something else, anything else that we're not doing that could work?"
He was asking for a supernatural cure for his partner's infertility. The man must believe in anything, Jen smirked to herself.
"My advice, Mr. Mulder, is that you never give up on a miracle."
And with that, she was gone.
XXX
Two hyper-enthused kids were racing around the apartment when Mulder opened the door. Only they weren't kids anymore. They were a young Luke Skywalker and a little fairy that he couldn't remember the name of. Megan spotted him first, practically jumping into his arms.
"Hi Mulder! I'm Tinkerbell!" she said with the biggest smile on her face. Then she gave her shoulders a tiny shake, causing the pretend wings that were part of her costume to flutter.
"How much sugar have you had so far?" Mulder had to ask, though admittedly, she was cute.
"I ate some candy at school but Dana says we can't have any more until tomorrow."
"Scullyyyy," Mulder caught sight of his partner and whined in the way he was sure Megan and Zach had when she had informed them of that rule.
"Well, look at them already. They've had enough," Scully made her case, walking over and pecking Mulder on the lips.
"It's Halloween. If they can't eat a ridiculous amount of sugar tonight, when can they?"
"Yeah!" Megan, still in Mulder's arms, gave her two cents on the issue.
"We'll see, little miss."
But as she walked away, Scully knew she had essentially lost the battle.
XXX
"Trick or treat," Mulder and Scully crooned, exhausted, on the front steps of Maggie's house three hours later. Megan was asleep over Mulder's shoulder, his Oxford sweatshirt covering all aspects of her costume besides the little girl's prized shoes. Scully had brought one of her jackets along, but she had refused to wear anything but the extra sweatshirt Mulder kept in the car. Zach was still walking, but looked like he couldn't take another step. Scully was holding both Megan's wings and Zach's light saber, as well as sleeping Megan's modest bag of candy.
"Come in come in!" Maggie ushered them inside, enveloping Zach in a hug and then reaching up to kiss Megan on the cheek. Her outward love of the children had done nothing but grow and grow since she had first met them, and now was indistinguishable from the love she had for any of her other grandchildren.
And the way she treated Mulder was perfect. She had been so happy when her daughter had told her of the new development in their relationship, but not very surprised. They had been living together for quite awhile, and the kids acted like a glue that held them together even tighter than they had been before. Maggie knew from the moment her daughter let Mulder and the kids move in that it would hurt her so much more to not embark on a romantic relationship with her partner than to just go ahead and let all the puzzle pieces of her life fall together. Most of all, she respected the pace Scully and Mulder's relationship was going at. Scully had been worried that her mother would be hearing wedding bells as soon as they told her the truth, which was a step Scully didn't want to think about yet. But she'd been extremely understanding, not pressuring Mulder or the kids to come to family functions, yet always extending invitations. They all knew her home was always open, and as far as Mulder was concerned, she was an angel. As much as she loved him and their kids, he loved her the same. He just hoped that she knew that.
"Sorry, this one conked out on us after the last bunch of houses we stopped at," Scully was referring to Megan as Mulder laid her on the couch.
"Poor thing. She looks beautiful."
"Happy Halloween Maggie," Zach was fighting desperately to keep his own eyes open as he threw his arms around Maggie's midsection.
"Happy Halloween pumpkin. Have you been having fun?"
Zach nodded.
"Do you want to lay down next to your sister?" she offered. He nodded again, and they all went into the living room. On the loveseat, Scully nestled herself into Mulder's side, and Maggie sat in the armchair facing them once Zach had closed his eyes.
"I'm sorry, we didn't mean for them to crash. I think we overestimated their energy tonight," Mulder explained, rubbing Scully's shoulder.
"Oh, it's okay. Dana and the others used to do the same thing on Halloween night. Once they'd counted their candy, of course."
"Ahh, Zach already managed to get that out of the way in the car." All of the adults looked over to the sleeping pair. Even though it had only been a moment since he lay down, Zach was out like a light.
"We're going to have a heck of a time getting them home," Scully observed.
"Then let them stay," her mother suggested.
"Oh Mom, we couldn't. They're going to be terrors in the morning."
"Not any worse than you four were at that age, I'm sure. Did you bring extra clothes for them?"
"There's some in the car."
"Then that's perfect. It's Friday. You two can go and have some fun of your own tonight," at that, Scully blushed, "they can stay here, and tomorrow we can do some Grandma things."
Scully looked at Mulder to ask if it was okay with him. What she was met with were eyes that were about to tear up.
"I think they'll really like that Mrs. Scully. But only if you're sure."
"I'm positive. It's been awhile since I've had little ones around and it'll be nice to spend some time with them."
With a little more insistence, Mulder and Scully kissed their sleeping children goodbye. As Scully ran out to get their bags from the car, Mulder stood looking through a bookshelf of some movies Maggie owned. Stumbling across Caddyshack, he turned to the woman.
"Is it okay if we borrow this?"
"You can have it if you like. I think Charlie brought it here awhile ago and never bothered to take it back with him. I've certainly never seen it."
"Thank you."
"Fox?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you for letting these children be a part of our lives."
Mulder threw his arms around Maggie, in absolute awe that she was thanking him when he owed her so many himself.
"Thank you for everything that you do. And thank you for raising the most amazing woman. She's perfect."
"Nobody can be perfect on their own, Fox."
XXX
"I can't believe you don't want butter on your popcorn. Ick. It's un-American."
They'd had this argument before, so Scully ignored his picking.
"Caddyshack, Mulder?"
"It's a classic American movie. Besides, I found it at your mom's."
"That's what every guy says. It's a guy movie," she moved back to untwist the top on her Shiner Bock.
"When one of my family members gives us a movie, hopefully it'll be Steel Magnolias."
Mulder could be as smart-alecky as he wanted, but when it came to shooting bottle caps into the garbage can, she was still superior. He'd argue that she was superior in many many ways, but on a different night.
He twisted their fingers together after their toast, kissing her lovingly on the hand.
"I don't know if you noticed, but I never made the world a happier place," Mulder confessed.
"Not true. Megan and Zach were more than happy trick-or-treating with you tonight. And I'm fairly happy. So that's something."
Mulder smiled at her, eliciting one prized grin back. She always knew what to say.
"So what was your final wish anyway?"
Instead of answering, Mulder leaned forward and placed his lips over hers as the ridiculous movie started. She was right. It didn't matter what he'd done for the human race or what he meant as a man to the whole world. His whole world was laying on a flower-print couch in Baltimore, coming down from sugar rushes. His whole world was sitting right by his side, just as she had been for seven years.
Well, underneath him. Which had not been the case for seven years.
He never wanted to take his lips off of her skin. He was content to stay there forever and ever just kissing and suckling and nibbling every piece of flesh of hers he could reach. She was responding in kind, running her fingers through his hair and down the back of his neck, making him shiver everywhere.
"Let's turn off the movie and go to bed Mulder," she suggested, though it was very hard to translate thoughts to words when his hand was kneading her breast like it was.
"Mmm, no. Let's do it out here," he grunted.
"Mulder, this is a new couch," she whined, and he stopped his ministrations to give her a puzzled look. She couldn't be serious.
She was serious. He groaned and moved them both to the floor.
"Sexy," she deadpanned, throwing a doll of Megan's that she ended up laying on across the room. "Barbies and arthritis."
"Scully, you'd be sexy anywhere," Mulder resumed kissing down her chest.
"Tell me more," she decided to play along while encouraging his shirt above his head.
"I can't tell you how much you turn me on. Thank God we got together when we did, otherwise I would've surely gone crazy wanting to touch you." Her sweater suddenly went the way of the Barbie doll and Mulder unclasped her bra in a not-so-delicate fashion. His tongue was rubbing her nipple back and forth, causing her to close her eyes in ecstasy.
"You have no idea how incredibly beautiful you are. Sometimes it takes everything I've got not to jump you while you're doing normal things, like making dinner or playing with the kids."
She was using his long strings of sentences to unzip them both. Soon, the only thing left on either of them were her panties, but Mulder took care of them promptly.
"I love everything about you Dana Scully. Your heart," kiss, "your mind," kiss, "but more than anything I love the look on your face when I do this," and he slid into her, watching as she closed her eyes once more and dug the back of her head into the floor. Taking advantage of her exposed throat, Mulder lay claim to it with his lips.
He often let her set the pace during sex, content to please her in any way she wanted. But that night was different. Mulder's thrusts were hard and fast. It was only when he felt himself get close that he wanted to slow down.
"What's the matter?" Scully asked as he came to a near halt inside of her body.
"I can't do this without you," Mulder spoke to her on so many levels.
Scully dug her hands into his backside and pushed rhythmically. Trying to give her the most pleasure, Mulder started digging into her in a circular motion every time he pressed in, grinding against her. It was a little hard to keep his composure doing that, particularly since he had already once come so close to going over the edge, but it was worth it to hear the tiny noises that were coming from his Scully.
"Hmm, mmm, oh oh, God, oh God."
"Come on Scully. Come on."
"God Mulder. Harder. Yesss."
Sweat was starting to form on Mulder's brow and on his shoulders, but he was determined to make her lose it first.
"Come on Scully."
The sound of her name on his lips… it was so familiar to her. Seven years ago, that is what he dubbed her as. But every time she heard him say her name during sex, it was different somehow. Like he wasn't talking about her. Like she wasn't herself. It was the most erotic thing about their coupling.
Finally, she went over the edge. Scully moaned loudly and deeply, letting out a few words here and there. Mulder couldn't tell. He was in the process of following her.
Scully was still coming down when she felt Mulder pull out of her, put his hands on either side of her hips, and kiss her directly above her womb.