Scully's cell began ringing exactly as the clock changed from 12:41 to 12:42. She knew it because she had been watching it intently as she sat in the office waiting for Mulder to get back with lunch. She had reached a stage in her pregnancy where she needed food when she needed food. Since Mulder had offered to drop by the deli down the street on his way back from meeting with the agent handling Zach and Megan's adoption case, sinking her teeth into a chicken salad sandwich had been the only thing on her mind. So she was a little alarmed when she noticed that Mulder was the one calling her. She hoped it was about a soup of the day.
"Mulder…"
"Scully, you need to get over here right now."
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. What had he done now?
"Why? Where are you?"
He gave her an obscure Alexandria address and, against her better judgment, thirty minutes later she pulled up a long driveway to a gigantic brick house. Mulder's car was in the driveway, and he was sitting on the back of it eating a candy bar.
"What the hell is going on?" she asked, getting out of the car and slamming the door. She wasn't exactly mad. She was hungry. And if history was anything to go by, there was a 99% chance Mulder was leading her on a wild goose chase.
Expecting her less-than-excited response at his strange request, Mulder hopped down from the car and kissed her cheek, producing a set of keys.
"I got some good news. Come inside."
The house was empty, a good sign that there was no investigation that would have to go on there. But it was huge. The front entryway was bigger than their entire kitchen, and it led to a sprawling wooden staircase. The walls were a hard, glossy marble that reflected Scully's confused expression.
"What are we doing here?" she asked.
"Zach and Megan's adoption has almost been fully processed. We only have four months of supervision and another home inspection left before we go up before the judge."
It was an elating feeling, to know that Zach and Megan were almost legally Mulder's. But it was also terrifying, the timing of it all. Scully was four and a half months pregnant. In four month's time, she would be in the last days of her pregnancy, if not already dealing with a newborn if the baby decided to come early. She shuddered at the thought of handling a newborn and government bureaucracies. The look on Mulder's face, though, was so priceless. He looked like a man who had figured everything out. A man who'd gotten his birthday wish. Her heart warmed. They'd deal with it. They'd do anything for their family.
"That doesn't explain what we're doing in a strange house on work time," she countered, although she had a feeling that it did.
"Scully, everything is coming together. I love our little apartment, but we're going to need someplace bigger very soon."
She let out a very weary sigh.
"I know you're not going to want to move once the baby is born. My goal is to get us out of there before it happens. But no matter what, you are not going to have to lift a finger if you don't want to. I will take care of everything by myself – move every box myself if I have to. The only thing I need is for you to help me decide where this is all going to go down."
"Hold on," Scully put her hand up just as Mulder was about to open his mouth to speak again. "First of all, give me this," she grabbed the half-eaten candy bar out of his hands and took it for her own. "So we're just going to move?"
"Well… eventually I thought…" Mulder's answer tapered off. He looked like a scolded puppy.
"Wait… I'm sorry," she took a deep breath, "this is just a lot to take in at once and I wasn't expecting this."
"I just heard the news and got all these ideas and called my realtor—"
"You have a realtor?"
"An old neighbor that I've known for awhile."
"Okay. So you have a realtor. And he told you to come here?"
"Yeah. It's got four bedrooms, three and a half baths, it's on three acres…"
"It's very… luxurious," Scully searched for the right word as she looked to her right to peer into a large formal living area with the same marble walls and tiled floors with a gigantic bay window at the head. She was intimidated to even have her shoes on in the house.
"Do you want to look through it?"
They were there, she supposed. She didn't want to have driven out there for nothing.
"But we can't possibly afford this place," Scully pointed out.
"I have money put away, Scully. We can afford it."
Her brow furrowed.
"We'll talk about it later, okay?" Mulder took her hand in his. "What I want you to do now is try to picture our kids here. Where their beds would go, where would they leave their toys, that kind of thing."
"Alright."
"Alright. Then let the tour begin."
There kitchen was entirely marble with brand new stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. It looked like nobody had ever made a meal in there before, and Scully couldn't see why they would. The thought of the immaculate stovetop getting greasy terrified her, not to mention what picturing the spills and messes that happened in her own kitchen currently on those river stone floors made her feel like.
Just off the kitchen was the dining and family rooms, all one giant area. Smooth tile stretched out from wall to wall until her eyes scanned up to a huge stone fireplace at the opposite end of the kitchen. It was disappointing to her to not see any carpet, not even in the family room. If they lived there with a baby who was learning how to walk, or even a toddler who was prone to falls, she would constantly be terrified of what would happen when they went down. They couldn't always keep their baby above ground on the bottom level of their own home.
They traveled upstairs, where Scully noticed that the slats in the banister that lined the edge of the stairs and the upstairs hallway were way too far apart. And the hardwood floors looked like a nightmare to keep up. But she was eager to see the bedrooms, because she knew that was where she would be able to visualize everything the best.
The first three bedrooms were all pretty much the same, and all without carpet. Scully didn't know why that bothered her so much. She guessed it was because she was searching for something soft in that sprawling mansion.
Mulder lead her into the master bedroom, which Scully thought may have been bigger than her whole house at the moment. It had two walk-in-closets and lead to an en suite, which was where Scully went first. The bathroom was enormous, with a Jacuzzi tub, shower, and a lot of counter space. Mulder had thought this room would peak her interests.
"What do you think of that tub?" he rubbed her shoulder.
"I'm thinking I would never leave that tub if I were allowed in."
The second upstairs bathroom was smaller than the master bath, but still made her current bathroom look tiny. If they moved there, it would be the kids' bathroom. With a double sink, there would definitely be no fighting about who got to do their hair or who got to brush their teeth.
In the basement, the first thing Scully noticed was the large bar sitting directly off the stairs. She didn't have a problem with having alcohol in the same house with her children, not at all. What she was worried about was when they got older and noticed that if their parents had a gigantic bar in the basement, it may be a good place to have a party. Was it stupid to hate a house for being too well-equipped?
Playroom, bathroom, an open area where Mulder suggested putting some exercise equipment… all of these things were fine themselves. But she couldn't see them there. Some people think a big house is one of the pieces of the happiness puzzle, but Scully didn't want to raise a family in a place that echoed.
And then, they came to a set of double French doors, and Mulder got a big, stupid grin on his face.
"What's behind those doors?" Scully asked. At that point, it could have been a stable full of ponies and she wouldn't have been surprised.
"Ta-daaaa," Mulder made a big show of opening the doors to show the carpet that Scully so desperately wanted in the rest of the house, complete with theater seats and an overhead projector. A home theater. Scully sighed.
"You don't like it, do you?" Mulder noticed her unimpressed expression.
"It's wonderful, Mulder."
"But…"
"But it's… it's too much. It's too big, it's too cold, it's too nice. This is a lovely home, Mulder. But it's not our home."
"What are you looking for?" he asked, coming around to see her point.
"Don't get me wrong, we need some place bigger than what we've got now. But I want it to be cozy. Somewhere warm and bright and even a little crowded. If I lived in a place like this I would feel so wasteful and unconnected. We don't even need half of this space."
Mulder nodded.
"Thank you for bringing me here though," she turned and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing a delicate kiss to his nose.
"I'm sorry for pulling you away from work. I just… the meeting with the adoption agent went so well," Mulder began gently rubbing his hands in circles around her back.
"I know. And we'll keep looking. Just not for something like this."
Mulder smiled and then slowly looked around.
"Yeah, I guess this is pretty yuppyish."
"Yuppyish?"
"It's a word."
Scully smiled her million-watt smile that made Mulder melt. She'd hypnotized him. He couldn't even imagine them in a place like this.
"Very yuppyish."
He laughed and pulled her close, leading the way up the stairs and out the door. Locking up, Mulder put the key under a hide-a-rock.
"Before we leave, I gotta tell you, there's a Jacuzzi in back enclosed by a gazebo…" Mulder waggled his eyebrows. Scully laughed heartily while imagining how that would change their sex life.
"Yeah, well there's a chicken salad sandwich at Gooey's that has my name on it. I can't make any decisions until I've had lunch."
Mulder was still chuckling when he followed her car out of the driveway, wondering what he'd done to deserve her.
have a great Sunday!