Sarah and Katelynn were walking out the door with Sarah's mom when Megan came around to bug him. Zach was having such a great time, he didn't want to have to play with or share his new presents with his little sister. He loved Megan, he really did, but sometimes he didn't want her around. Now that they lived with Mulder and Dana, he wasn't constantly worried when Megan wasn't right next to him, and he sometimes felt guilty when he wanted to be alone. He'd talked with Julie about it, and she'd told him that it was normal, but that didn't always help with the guilty feelings.

"Dana, why don't you pull that jacket tighter around your middle?"

When Zach heard the tone in Bill's voice, he froze. He knew that tone. Confrontation. No matter where he was or what type of day it had been or even his feelings about Megan, Zach knew what to do in the face of that tone. He grabbed one of Megan's braids and tugged her down toward the floor.

"Ow!" she protested, but he didn't care. Zach lifted the tablecloth of one of the tables all of his friends had just been sitting at and pushed Megan underneath the structure, quickly following behind her.

"Bill, why don't you shut the hell up?" Megan had heard that, and suddenly Zach's behavior made sense. She crawled into his lap.

"Zaaach," she whined, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, being transported back to countless times they'd had to do the exact same thing when somebody came to their house and started yelling at their mom. Zach wordlessly clutched his sister closer, comforting her the best that a nine-year-old knew how while his own heart threatened to pound out of his chest. This couldn't be happening again.

"Oh my God. Don't tell me your pregnant with that bastard's baby! Don't tell me he's saddling you with another kid!"

Both kids couldn't help listening and tensing up as the adults got louder. Megan and Zach could tell that Bill was still talking to Dana, but only Zach processed the information that they were talking about her being pregnant, and that Bill was probably talking about his sister and him.

"Bill!" Tara's shout was so unexpected that it caused the children huddled under the table to jump. Zach heard Megan start to whimper, but he shushed her.

"You can't start crying now," he whispered, "they'll hear us."

"I wanna go home," she pouted.

"Just… think about something else."

"No, Tara, don't you see what's happening? He's trapping her with all of these kids. How'd you knock her up, Obi Wan? Did you ask your 'friends' for help? The same ones responsible for that chip in the back of her neck and keeping her glued to your side for the rest of her life? How can she go from being barren to being pregnant with your child in just a few years?"

Zach saw Mulder's shoes moving from his view underneath the table and that's when he knew.

Dana was pregnant and Mulder was the baby's dad. His heart dropped into his stomach. Thoughts of him and Megan being kicked out of their bedroom by a little baby ran through his mind. There were only two bedrooms in their home and Mulder wasn't their father and Dana wasn't their mother, so they would naturally have to be the ones to leave. It'd be just like when their mom left. It'd be worse because Zach was really getting used to being tucked in and having birthday parties.

A tear slid down his cheek and landed in Megan's hair.

XXX

"Dana? Dana honey," Maggie gently knocked on the bathroom door. Mulder was nervously standing by her side, unsure of whether Scully would want to see him. He was angry at Bill, yes, so unbelievably angry at him for what he had just pulled, but part of him was angry at Scully for pushing him away. They'd worked too hard and gone through too much to go backwards like that.

"Mom, I don't need to be consoled," came Scully's voice. There were no tears in it. Just frustration.

"Just let me in. We need to talk."

"The door is open."

Maggie gave Mulder an apologetic look, but they both knew that sometimes a girl just needs her mom. By all means, Mulder said with his mind once Maggie disappeared, still wanting to scream. He decided to go find Zach and Megan, Bill and everyone else be damned.

"Do you want to go on the slide Meggie?" Sam, Charlie's 13-year-old son, was asking Megan when Mulder walked up to them. She was sitting on the ground near the indoor jungle gym, looking down. Zach was looking out one of the large windows where the shoe cubbies were. Mulder was worried that they had heard what went on between Scully and Bill, but he remembered looking around before he decided to take part in the situation, and they had been nowhere to be seen.

"Hey pumpkin," Mulder greeted his little princess. He liked Sam a lot, and gratefully put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hi Mulder," she said, still looking down.

"What's the matter?"

Megan looked up, almost searching his eyes for something, but then looked away again.

"Nothing."

"Are you tired?" he asked, picking her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck pretty tightly and laid her head on his shoulder, not answering with words but answering with actions, at least Mulder thought. He carried her over to Zach, who he found was acting very similar.

"Did you have fun today Zach?" Mulder asked, even just being around his kids making the events with Bill wash slowly away from his mind.

The little boy nodded, not taking his eyes away from the window.

"Today must have been a big day, you two are beat."

"Can we go home, Mulder?" Zach asked. Mulder didn't know what to tell him. Scully was still in the bathroom with her mom, Tara had dragged Bill out of the building and was no doubt ripping him a new one at the moment, Charlie and Michelle had taken over cleaning duties, and the rest of the kids didn't know the first thing about what was going on. He felt like a branch hovering above a raging river, and Megan and Zach were clinging to him like their only hope. He was their only hope. But they were also his.

"What if we played the racecar game again?" Mulder suggested.

"Dana," Megan reached out over Mulder's shoulders, and Mulder turned around to find a puffy-eyed Scully walking toward them, her mom not far behind. She took Megan, even though Zach looked on at them painfully.

"Let's go home guys," she said, offering Mulder an apologetic smile. He put an arm around his girls and they started on their journey home. Zach, however, lagged behind.