|
Title: Counting Blessings Summary: Mulder returns.... Notes: This is my first post in... oooh, weeks at least. I am working on a longer story, but felt like a break when this popped into my head. For Tamara, for the impromtu beta She had wondered if the child in her arms would ever settle down and go to sleep. He had been a restless baby ever since he had been born, almost two months ago now, she noted. Two months ago on Friday, in fact. Two months without any help, almost ten months without the baby's father to give her the love and support she so desperately needed. She still hadn't been able to find out how it had happened. True, her relationship with Mulder had stepped up a gear, but they had never made love. They had never taken anything further than a New Year's kiss, or a squeeze of a shoulder or arm. And yet the evidence was there. The paternity tests had all shown the same points correllating to Mulder's DNA pattern. The gunmen were working around the clock with the results from numerous other tests - blood counts, DNA, fingerprinting, anything, in fact, that could give a clue as to how on earth this could have happened. How she could have become pregnant without knowing. It was almost religious in its implications. The baby had stopped suckling, and his eyelids were beginning to droop. Carefully she hoisted him on to her shoulder, and began to gently pat his back. The noise was so quiet she almost didn't notice it. A soft metalic scrabbling from the direction of the hallway. The sound of a key in the lock. Quickly, efficiently she arranged the cushions on the couch and laid the baby down, reaching for her gun almost in the same movement. She had feared this day would come. Someone, somewhere, had created life inside her, and they would not have done so if they hadn't wanted the results. She glanced at the window as she made her way into the hall. Closed and locked. That was little comfort; it was only glass, after all. But the noise of it shattering would mean she would have time to get back to her son before anyone entered the room by that route. It seemed an age before the door began to open. She stood in the shadows, hoping it would give her the advantage. Then, suddenly, the door swung open... She dropped her gun. "Mulder?" It was little more than a croak. "Scully?" He seemed unharmed, and completely aware. "Is that you?" "It's me, Mulder, it's me." She let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "Are you...?" She stepped out of the shadow of the bedroom door and stood awkwardly in front of him. He reached out slowly and touched her arm. "It's you," he confirmed. "It's really you. They told me..." He was interrupted by a whimper from the couch. Scully turned around, startled, breaking her contact with the man she hadn't seen in very nearly a year. She sat on the edge of the couch, picked up the child, and began to rock him gently. Satisfied he wasn't going to cry, she risked a glance at her partner. He was standing, but as she watched he came to kneel next to her, an expression of awe telling her all she needed to know. He knew, somehow, that this was their child. "Is this...?" He didn't seem able to finish the sentence. "Yes." It was all she could say. She tried to choke back the tears, but couldn't stop the sobs emerging. "I'm so glad to see you..." It was all she needed to say. They stayed that way, she sitting, he kneeling, for what seemed like an eternity. The silence was broken by a wail from the bedroom. Scully slowly rose to her feet, carefully depositing the now sleeping child in Mulder's arms. "That will be his brother," she told him, amused by the subtle change of his features to register shock instead of awe. "I'd better go get him before he wakes his sisters." End
|