a/n: sorry about the wait! here's a fluffy chapter to keep things light-hearted.
"Is it still the weekend?" Megan asked sleepily at the breakfast table, taking in her guardians' casual attire. Neither Mulder nor Scully said anything right away, actually hoping to avoid the topic of conversation for the morning. They didn't know what to tell the kids about the fact that neither had jobs anymore. It was hard for even them to wrap their minds around, especially since Mulder had forgotten to turn off the alarm that Monday morning and both were startled awake at 6 a.m. wondering if their resignations had all been a dream. But one shared look was all it had taken for their memories to come flooding back to them in perfect clarity… they were running away from everything they once were.
"No, it's Monday," Scully said simply, running her fingers through Megan's hair, which seemed to grow a few inches every day. Everything about the children, how tall they were getting, what clothes they outgrew, which shoes didn't fit, and what toys they determined "for babies," seemed to be progressing forward at hyper speed.
"Are you going to work?" the little girl inquired once more.
"Not today pumpkin. Finish your cereal please," was all that Scully offered. Seemingly satisfied with that answer, Megan tucked in. Glancing at the clock, once more Scully realized that they were all running late. Well, not all of them. It was hard to be late when you had nowhere to be.
"Mulder, have you seen Zach?"
"Uhh, he went to go get changed. That was… awhile ago," Mulder started to get up under the pressure of his partner's eyes. Zach was no doubt still in his pajamas, on the floor of his bedroom building something out of Legos or playing with his army men. He was usually a responsible kid, but he was still a kid.
The kids' bedroom door was closed, and Mulder was almost yelling as he burst through it, but the sight of Zach sprawled out on the floor, books and markers scattered around him, thankfully put a stop to that impulse.
"Zach, what are you doing? It's almost time to leave for school."
"I'm finishing my science fair project," he said innocently.
"Science fair? Shi- shoot. Is it the sixteenth already?"
"Uh huh," Zach nodded. His end-of-the-year science fair was tonight, but Mulder had been so wrapped up in his decision to leave the bureau that he'd forgotten all about it in the midst of everything.
"Zach, I'm so sorry bud. I know I said I would help you, and I will. Just… maybe we can explain it to your teacher…"
"It's done."
"What?" Mulder was shocked. He couldn't imagine that a child with any strand of his shared genetic composition would have the foresight to finish any project until well after it was due.
"I got my information from parts of the books in your office," Zach shifted a bit so that Mulder could see his cardboard display. It simply read "Extraterrestrials" and had a few hand-drawn and printed pictures of aliens and UFOs decorating alongside his information.
Chuckling to himself, Mulder moved down to the boy's level and held up the project. He was so proud of his little man at that moment. It was enough to make him forget exploitative offers and government conspiracies and all of the harrowing aspects of his life on the X-Files and just sit back and enjoy the simple innocence of Zach's bullet points and captions.
"Did I do a good job?" Zach asked as Mulder was in the middle of reading a section on intelligent beings navigating through wormholes to manipulate space travel.
"You did a fantastic job. You did this all yourself?"
Zach nodded, earning him a tight hug from Mulder.
"We're doing a science fair this afternoon for the whole school before the one tonight for the parents. I hope nobody thinks mine is stupid."
"Nobody is going to think your project is stupid. They'll probably be impressed."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. I'm impressed, and I'm an expert on aliens."
Zach beamed with that information.
"Zach? Are you ready to – why are you still in your pajamas?" Scully asked as she appeared in the doorway.
"Look at what Zach decided to research for his science fair project," Mulder held up the poster board for Scully to see. Neither of them said anything, but even Zach noticed the smiles exchanged between the two.
"I know we were going to do fingerprinting, Dana, but Sadie Lyle was already doing that."
"That's okay honey. You did a really good job on this," Scully praised him. The three spent a second looking over the masterpiece once more before Megan announced that the big hand was on the nine and the little hand was almost on the eight, meaning that they were running behind schedule once again. But they wouldn't have had it any other way.
XXX
"I'll get it! I'll get it!" Megan's exclamations could be heard throughout the apartment that night. Scully was sat in the kitchen, looking over the continuing education requirements for medical instructors. It was giving her a headache. Thankfully, it was nearing 6, meaning that she, Zach, and Mulder would be off to Zach's school soon for the science fair. And the person at the door was her mother, who had jumped at the opportunity to spend time with Megan while they were out.
"Hello Miss Megan," Maggie greeted the smiling girl.
"Hi! Are you ready for Meggie and Maggie time?" Megan could barely contain herself, wrapping her arms around the older woman. Maggie was just as enthused. It was such a contrast from the first time they lay eyes on each other. In less than a year, she had gone from being fearful and distrusting of Maggie to absolutely adoring her. Scully felt so special every time she saw her mother interacting with her daughter. A large part of her heart glowed with pride knowing that she was not only providing her children with a grandmother, an extremely special role in the life of any young kid, but her mother with two grandchildren so close to her. It was like a thank-you to Maggie for all of the sacrifices she had made throughout her life to make sure that her daughter was happy.
"Hey Mom," Scully smiled as her mom came walking into the kitchen, Megan still wrapped around her waist.
"Dana," Maggie leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, "How are my babies doing today?"
"Junior here is making him or herself known this evening."
"Dana, I know you know."
"Mom, if I could have kept it a secret from myself, I would've."
"I don't understand why you're keeping it to yourself. Does Fox even know?"
"No Mom, he doesn't , and he doesn't want to. Not only is it going to be a surprise, but if we go broadcasting b-o-y or g-i-r-l, it may make some people nervous," she was referring to the kids. "The baby" seemed a lot more harmless to them than the person with a name and a face and the ability to wake everybody up at two in the morning that it was inevitably going to be.
"Dana, can I go get Franklin to show Maggie?" Megan was referring to the kids' new pet goldfish.
"No, but you can take her to see Franklin. Remember, only Mulder or I can pick up the bowl."
"Come on Maggie, come see Franklin. He's so cool." Maggie let the little girl lead her to the bedroom. As she passed him in the hallway, Maggie greeted Mulder, hair still damp from his shower.
"Hey babe, got all dolled up for ya," he said, kissing Scully's hair.
"Did Zach look ready?" she asked.
"He was struggling with what shirt to wear, but he wouldn't let me help him."
"Boys," Scully shook her head.
About fifteen minutes and two shirts later, Zach was finally ready to go. A short car ride after that, Mulder and Scully were in a gym with a bunch of other proud parents setting up his poster board on a table. For added effect, Mulder brought some of his books along to set up in front of the standing board, showing Zach's source material, as well as how proud he was of the little boy for his chosen research standards.
"Want me to take the first shift while you take a look at some of the other projects?" Mulder asked Scully once the science fair had started up.
"No. I need to sit. You can go on ahead," she told him, settling herself slowly into one of the two chairs that had been provided for Zach.
"Alrighty. Zach, is it okay if you take a walk around this joint with me?"
Zach, however, couldn't care less about what Mulder was asking him. His eyes were glued to a young girl in a pretty blue dress meticulously setting up her display right next to them. The older man looked on in pride; it seemed that his little guy had a crush on the smartest girl in class. Not unlike someone else he knew.
"Earth to Zach," Mulder finally felt it was time to rouse him from his very obvious staring.
Mortified, Zach whipped himself to face Mulder and Scully once again, cheeks bright pink with embarrassment.
"That's Sadie Lyle," he whispered.
"Fingerprint girl?" Mulder said, a little too loudly for Zach, who immediately motioned for him to pipe down.
"Yeah."
"Why are we whispering?" Scully asked.
"She doesn't believe in aliens."
"So?"
"So I like her, but she thinks my project is stupid!"
"Hi Zach," a voice penetrated their huddle, and all three looked up to see Sadie Lyle standing before them.
"Hi Sadie," Zach said bashfully, looking down at the floor.
"Your poster board looks really good. Even though aliens don't exist."
"There have been recorded UFO sightings since the beginning of civilization," Zach told her, making Mulder practically jump for joy with excitement.
"And there are hundreds of different phenomena that occur on Earth capable of explaining each sighting. Besides, even if aliens did exist, there's no way they would be able to travel across the universe to Earth. It's too big."
Those words evoked a deep emotional response from Scully. That had been one of the very first things she had said to Mulder. The journey of their lives and their relationship since they'd become partners had started off with them.
"No, have you ever heard of wormholes? Aliens could use them to travel long distances in a short amount of time and even Albert Einstein said they exist."
"Well if aliens exist and are coming to Earth, how come they aren't walking around here with us?"
"Maybe they are," Zach shrugged. "Maybe you're an alien."
The little girl let out an honest-to-goodness gasp in outrage, which made Mulder have to stifle a laugh that was bubbling up in case she had a big father who was somewhere nearby.
"I'm not an alien!" she insisted, then turned on her heel and went back to her station in a huff. Both Mulder and Zach started uncontrollably giggling like the children they were while Scully could only sit there and shake her head.
"You like this girl?" she asked Zach. He blushed for the second time that night and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"She's pretty."
"Then why did you call her an alien?"
"Because it was funny." Looking over to Mulder to get some support, all Scully found was a giggling 6'3" mass of man-child.
"Did you see her face, Scully? It was a little funny."
She just sighed and put on a smile as a group of people came over to check out Zach's project, leaving her two boys to give credit to the age-old stereotype that teasing equaled love.