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Walking into the office, Mulder makes sure to have everything settled with Monica before he leaves town. Leaving extra keys and a verbal plan of what he is doing, Mulder tells her to keep an eye on his family. Easily noticing the worry and protectiveness in her boss' eyes, Monica tells him she will watch out for them. Making sure everything is in order, Mulder heads to the parking garage and gets in his car. He almost goes home, but knows this is something he needs to do. Exiting the parking garage, Mulder makes his way to the Lone Gunmen to retrieve documents that are too sensitive to e-mail or fax. Telling them to talk to Scully once he is officially gone, Mulder hugs the men good-bye before starting out on his quest to find Cigarette Smoking Man. Looking at the time on his car dashboard, Mulder sighs knowing the time he leaves is the time Scully is picking Audrey and William up from daycare. Keeping a picture he takes of him and his family with him, Mulder tries to remember who he is doing this for.
Coming home with two babies and no Mulder is not fun for Scully that night, but she makes sure to keep a brave face for the kids. However, by the time the babies are settling into bed, Audrey has asked for Mulder about ten times. Kissing her daughter on the forehead, Scully soothes, "He'll be back soon, Baby."
Leaving her youngest children to sleep, Scully heads downstairs and takes a seat on the couch. Chloe is upstairs doing homework, and Scully is trying her best not to cry. Taking a breath, Scully spots the landline on the end table. Picking up the phone, Scully dials a number.
"Mom, um, I need to talk to you," Scully says through the receiver once the answering machine picks up. Just as she places the phone back in the cradle, it rings.
"Mom?" Scully asks picking up the phone again.
"Dana, is everything okay?"
With a heavy sigh, Scully answers, "No."
Scared now, Maggie tentatively says her daughter's name causing Scully to admit, "Mom, Mulder is gone."
Closing her eyes as her mother parrots "gone", Scully presses the bridge of her nose. She and Mulder agree not to tell Maggie exactly what is going on. Just that Mulder is out of town on an undercover assignment for the Bureau. Explaining this too her mother, Scully reluctantly adds, "I don't know how to cope."
Hearing her mother chuckle softly, Scully waits for Maggie to say something encouraging.
"When your dad was deployed, there were days when I had no idea how I'd cope. On base I had other women like me, but if you need anything, you ask me okay? To watch the babies, or just to talk."
"Thanks, Mom," Scully mumbles wishing she could just drive over and let her mom take care of her.
Mulder's absence is not lost on the family over the next few weeks. Chloe, as much as Scully hates it, becomes the family's second caregiver coming home after school and picking up the babies from Anna's mom and either driving them to the Unremarkable House or babysitting them in Mulder's old apartment making them dinner and doing her homework until Scully gets off work to take them all home. Commenting about this to her mom one night, Scully is shocked when her mother admonishes her.
"Your daughter is seventeen, Dana! How could you let her do this?" Maggie exclaims. With a heavy sigh, Scully explains, "I didn't let her! She offered and then it kind of snowballed from there."
"What do you mean it snowballed? She's a teenage girl!"
Frustrated, Scully replies, "Don't you think I know that? If she'd talk to me, maybe this wouldn't happen. As of right now, all I know is that I'm failing my kids."
This admission becomes Scully's breaking point as she starts crying over the phone. She barely hears her mother mention something about coming over. Forty five minutes later there is a knock on the front door. Opening it, Scully sees her mom and starts sobbing again. Leading them to the couch, Maggie lets her daughter cry for a little while before asking, "Why didn't you call me sooner?"
"Thought I could handle it," Scully mumbles wiping away tears. Tucking her daughter's hair behind her ears, Maggie admits, "It's okay to ask for help."
Rolling her eyes, the red head sarcastically thanks her mother before remarking, "Like mother like daughter, huh?"
Noting Maggie's confused expression, Scully explains, "I think Chloe may have picked up on some of my habits."
With a small laugh, Maggie asks, "Chloe hasn't said anything to you about Mulder going on assignment?"
Shaking her head, Scully explains that Chloe knows the basics of Mulder's assignment, but that work is keeping her in the dark as well. Scully hates lying to her mother. She knows a good bit of what is happening through Byers, Langley, and Frohike who set the couple up with untraceable email accounts, but even those are used sparingly. The best she can do sometimes is jot any of the kids' milestones down in a journal for Mulder to see later. Maggie listens to her daughter tell her some of the issues she is having and realizes that a lot of it is lack of communication. Finally Maggie urges Scully to talk to Chloe and try to help her open up. Nodding, Scully decides to put her mother's advice into practice.
"You doing okay?" Scully asks her daughter one night when they're in the kitchen. She has been watching Chloe tap her pencil against her math book for around five minutes and is fairly certain something is bothering her.
"Not really," Chloe deflects not wanting to burden her mother with her own thoughts on her father leaving.
"Have you talked to Kyle any?" Scully begins again hoping her daughter will open up to her a little bit. She feels awful having Chloe help so much. Even with her mother helping, Scully feels guilty knowing she needs to pick up the extra autopsies on top of the teaching job at Quantico she started once her maternity leave ended. Paying for three children, medical bills, and therapy sessions is hard, especially without the second income. Scully is also too stubborn to touch too much of Mulder's money. Sitting next to her daughter, Scully asks, "I heard there's a new movie playing. Why don't you and Kyle go see it. You're too young to be staying at home like this."
"But—"
"Go. I am more than capable of taking care of things here."
Nodding, Chloe closes her math book before heading to her room to call Kyle on her private line.
Seeing her daughter leave the house and speed off in her car makes Scully wonder if she should have fought harder to make Mulder stay. She knows why he is doing this. If they didn't have children, she would have gone with him. Angry, Scully breaks down and cries for her daughter's childhood being ruined, at her carefree teenage years being filled with helping take care of two babies that are not hers. At Audrey and William not getting to be near their father. She wants life to be different for them. All three children need their father, but Chloe most of all. Studying the brain and performing autopsies, she is aware how much of Chloe's brain can and cannot process everything that is going on. As a thirty seven year old, Scully has a hard time processing her current situation.
Standing up, Scully decides to check on her youngest two noticing how quiet they are.
When Chloe meets up with Kyle at the movies, he immediately gives her a kiss and tells her how much he missed her.
"You too," She grins happy to be spending the night not watching Dora the Explorer.
Kyle can tell something is off with his girlfriend when Chloe calls him. Even in the movie, Kyle notices she makes no comments on the plot or hogs the popcorn. Tonight she is quiet.
"You okay?" He whispers. Nodding, Chloe answers, "Just got a lot on my mind."
"Like what?"
Shaking her head, Chloe answers, "After this."
When they do talk it is while they eat dinner after the movie. Chloe tells Kyle an abridged version of what happens. The version she rehearses with Scully to keep her dad's cover and how she is helping her mom take care of the babies.
"That's tough. So what you watch them everyday?"
"Just about. I kind of feel like I have to, you know?"
"No," Kyle answers flatly adding, "You shouldn't either."
"All I know is my mom needs the help, and I'm not doing anything."
"But you're also seventeen, Chloe. Audrey and William aren't your kids. This isn't right."
"Neither is my dad leaving for a year, but here we are," Chloe answers bitterly before apologizing.
"It's okay, but if you need me to talk to my parents," He starts as Chloe shakes her head.
"Thanks, but no. We're all just trying to find a way to deal with everything right now. I mean, it's kind of my fault anyway."
Kyle looks questioningly at his girlfriend until Chloe explains, "If I hadn't gotten taken none of this would have happened."
"It's not your fault. It's not like you willingly went with them or asked your father to become one of the Men in Black."
Letting out a small laugh, Chloe tells her boyfriend to find a better movie reference.
"Either way," Kyle continues, "You are not at fault here. If anything it's your dad's work."
"You're right. I just wish sometimes that Dad didn't think he had to save everyone. He reacted similarly when Mom had cancer. Life just sucks right now."
"Hey, do you want to come over for dinner with my family sometimes?"
Chloe shrugs.
"I'll let you know," She says.
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