Chapter 7

Scully let out a mix of a sob and a small laugh, feeling her heart pounding loudly in her chest at that unexpected request. Mulder was standing in front of her, his face serious and in his eyes, there was truth, honesty and much love.

"Oh my God, Mulder..."

"Your mom and dad are no longer with us. If they were, I would ask them for their blessing. But Father McCue is still alive and he also contributed to building up your faith and taught you to be kind and noble. And only now, after all we've been through, after everything you taught me, I understand what it means to have our union blessed in the same way our daughter will be. And I'm not talking about a paper or a title, but the true meaning of what it's like to voice to our friends and family that we are each other's person. To let everybody, and most importantly, to let you know that you are my choice."

"Oh, Mulder..." She siffled and gave up wiping the tears that kept on falling freely from her eyes. Scully placed a trembling hand against his heart and breathed a few times before she continued to talk. "We are already blessed. Grace is the concrete proof of how holy our love is. She is the result of what is certain and pure."

"Yes, she is." He replied, with a serious expression on his face.

Searching his eyes, she nodded her head and caressed his face. "This...home, you and I and Grace...These are the consequences of the choice both of us made. You are my only choice, Mulder. And my best one. So yes, I accept your request with all my heart!"

A broad smile broke on his handsome face as he heard those words, and he pulled her into a loving embrace.

A few moments passed by until Mulder kissed the top of her head and pulled away, the broad smile never fading. "You do?" He asked, just to savour the feeling of hearing it again. "Because, you know, I'm not sure if I've made myself clear here, Scully, but I'm asking you - again, if you want to stand before Father McCue and marry me..."

Still in tears, she chuckled at his words and nodded with emphasis. "Yes, I do, Mulder!"

He celebrated by raising his fists up as he was in some baseball match. Finally finding it funny, Scully continued to talk.

"And you know why? Because you may be a bat crap crazy man, but you have always been and you will always be my Mulder!"

Laughing quietly, he placed both hands on each side of her face. "Yes, I am and will always be!"

Saying that, Mulder lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers, kissing her with tenderness and utmost love. He kissed her twice more in the same way, savouring that moment and committing it to memory.

When they pulled away, he searched inside the inner pocket of his coat and on the following second showed her a small black velvet box with the name of a jewellery store carved on it.

Scully's mouth dropped open as she saw the small but significant gift in his hands.

"I'd like to give you this..." He said, his face softening a little as he put aside his humour to bring back a serious tone.

Deeply moved, Scully looked at him and then back at the small box as he opened it a second later. Inside, there was a wedding ring made of solid gold and with the same shade of her cross. Scully carefully took it from inside the box, turned it around and read the words "my constant" carved in its inside.

"Oh, Mulder..."

"I wanted it to be elegant but at the same time, discreet. Just like you are, Scully." He explained.

With her eyes beaming and still wet, she looked at him and nodded. "It's beautiful."

"May I?"

"Yes."

He held her right hand and placed the ring on her finger.

"Hey, look at this! It fits!" He feigned surprise, the playful tone back in his voice.

Chuckling, Scully looked at her hand with joy. "Yes, it does! It fits perfectly."

Scully turned to look at the small velvet box and ran her fingertips over the soft golden letters that composed the name of the jewellery store.

All of a sudden, she frowned with a questioning look.

"Mulder, this store no longer exists. This is a very rare piece of jewellery."

He became suddenly serious again and it took him a moment to reply. "I guess so." Came the short answer. And it was evident that the detail would go unnoticed if she hadn't brought it up.

What Mulder didn't take into consideration was that they had been investigators during most part of their life.

It was then that Scully felt her heart beating faster once again as a thought ran into her mind. "When did you buy this, Mulder?" She wanted to know, searching in his face for the answer she already suspected.

His momentary silence was mixed with sorrow and shame.

"Mulder?" She insisted, watching as he lowered his head as if a well-kept secret had just been disclosed.

"When...When we were in California for the Premiere of Federman's X-Files movie about Cardinal O'Fallon's case...There was a store near the hotel where we were staying. I went there before the film Premiere."

Her eyes were suddenly wide with disbelief. "That was twenty years ago..."

He tried to force a smile but it didn't reach his ears.

"I...was waiting for the right moment..."

"Oh, Mulder..."

Fresh tears filled Scully's eyes as she heard that confession, and she gave a step ahead and wrapped her arms around his neck, crying openly and sobbing at the same time she held him for dear life. He had kept that ring for two decades, despite all the pain and suffering, despite the long time they spent running away from the FBI, despite being trapped inside that house like an animal, regardless his depression, their arguments, her leaving. Guilt tore her heart to think she had walked away from him and even during a painful 18-month separation – yes, she counted each and every day, he still had the object that represented how deep his feelings for her were.

"I'm so sorry! I'm...I'm so terribly sorry, Mulder!" Scully sobbed heavily, clutching his shirt.

"Do not apologise for my mistakes, Scully. I should have had the guts to ask you this a long time ago," he spoke, squeezing her gently and loathing to hear her crying and to feel the pain coming from her heart. "I should have had the courage to face the darkness that followed me for nearly my entire life so that you didn't have to leave, broken-hearted and hopeless because of my actions."

"Don't you see, Mulder? You were hurting too. You were suffering and yet you kept what you felt for me right there in your heart!" She pulled away just enough to look at his face, "And you did face the darkness. You beat it like the brave man that you are!"

"I needed to do it. For me and for you. Even if we had never found our way back to each other again, I had to show you I could be a better person."

Through the tears that kept falling freely, she searched his eyes. "I am so proud of who you are, Mulder. And I never – never stopped loving you."

Mulder managed a tiny smile, never tired of hearing that sentence. "You told me that one night, remember? At St. Rachel Motel. Possibly the night when that sweet little girl sleeping upstairs was made!"

Scully took a deep breath while he gently wiped the tears from her face with tenderness.

"Darkness found you and me, Mulder. But we faced it. We gave our leap of faith forward together. Our love, it remained. We remained. And it is to honour that love that I want to be yours not only by having God's and Father McCue's blessing. I also want to be able to say that I'm yours before the law, before the few friends that are left to us, before everyone else who comes to meet us in this life. So that they know that Mulder and Scully are not just two people who worked together at the FBI once, but soulmates who have survived through the fire. Stronger and wiser. And still loving each other."

Deeply moved, he stroked her face, placing the strands of red hair behind her ears.

"I love you."

Then, he lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers slowly, gently, as if sealing a love promise.

When that kiss finished, they rested their foreheads together for a moment, waiting until their heartbeats came back to their regular pace.

And when they pulled apart, they looked at each other and smiled, Mulder kissing her lips softly one more time.

"I guess we have a deal then!" He joked, his sense of humour slowly coming back to normal.

Chuckling, and aware that her face was still red due to the tears of emotion, Scully nodded her head and took a deep breath. "Yes, we do. And now, you and I will come back inside and finish our desert. And then, we're heading upstairs."

"We could still watch a movie, there's a Marathon of-"

"No TV, Mulder. I got other plans." She cut him off, with a pointed look mixed with tenderness.

Mulder frowned with curiosity, still not getting what she was implying. "What other plans, Scully? It's still early to go to bed and you told me you wanted to watch it too!"

Scully chuckled at the confused look on his face. She was right: the surprise dinner he had so carefully planned had only one goal: his asking her to be his Scully for the years to come, with God's blessing through the hands of Father McCue. He didn't have anything else in mind other this. And this fact alone caused her heart to ache with love for him.

She straightened the lapels of his coat and then ran her fingertips over his sweater, biting her lower lip feeling the muscles of his chest underneath the fabric. "I've heard it'll rain sleeping bags tonight..."

Her words and her raised eyebrow finally made his eyes grow wide with surprise.

"Ohh! You mean...You're...We are..."

A broad smile finally broke on her face, casting away the remaining tears and the sadness that still lingered in there. "Yes, I am and we are."

"So you...you can…are you..."

"Yes. I can, Mulder! And did you hear what I said? Inside. Now." Came her reply, in a bossy tone that would always leave him begging for more orders. "On a second thought, I guess we'll skip desert and go upstairs straight away."

His lips curved into a crooked grin. "Oh, Scully..." He took her hand and kissed its back as they walked towards the door.

But before the stepped inside, Mulder made a sudden stop, with a mock worried expression on his face. "Wait a minute, Scully...We're not married yet!" He said, in an exasperated tone in his voice, causing her to raise both eyebrows now. "Father McCue will know that we've...you know..."

"Oh, really? And how do you explain that tiny bundle sleepling peacefully upstairs who smiles, cries and squirms in our arms and causes our hearts to burst with happiness?"

They both smiled broadly at that description and Mulder finally replied.

"A miracle?"

Laughing with joy, they entered their home and closed the door behind them. That night, Mulder made love to her in the exact same way he did in their first time: reverently and with utmost love. And despite Scully's urgence to be reunited with him, he kept his pace slow, careful with her current condition and loving her with his usual tenderness. Whispered loving words filled the night inside the unremarkable house, and were only interrupted much later, by a little girl's crying announcing it was time for her next meal.

To be continued