TITLE: It's Life: One More Life AUTHOR: Ladyhawk EMAIL ADDRESS: funger1@hofstra.edu DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT: Anywhere, just tell me SPOILER WARNING: Up to One Son and Arcadia CLASSIFICATION: V, A, R, RATING: PG CONTENT WARNING: Alternate Universe DISCLAIMER: CC owns them all SUMMARY: It's time for an addition to the family. find other fics in this series here http://fluky.gossamer.org/author/11799-1.html REALITY DISCLAIMER: No, I don't know if disabled people can be hired by the FBI as field agents. I've never tried to apply. I highly doubt it though, we would be too much of a liability to them. (And if you haven't picked up the implied statement: Yes, I am disabled too.) LH Author's notes: I rarely read stories where Mulder and Scully have children (Susan Proto's Abah is the only one I remember clearly), so why am I writing one? It seems a logical progression, I guess. And, as always, I'm doing it slightly differently. Babyfic types and It's Life fans, enjoy. Feedback welcome at funger1@hofstra.edu ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ All our hard work, all our planning has led up to today. The day we have both dreamed of for two years. I'm so excited I can hardly breathe. And I'm so scared that my canes rattle as I stand here, waiting beside Scully in the airport. As I stand here and wait with Scully leaning against me slightly, I think about all it took to get to this point. . . -------------------------------------------------------- Once we realized that we wanted to adopt a child, we knew things had to change. We took a long, hard look at our life up to this point: the X-files. We couldn't exactly run off at a moment's notice if we had a child, but the X-files was still vitally important to us, and maybe to the world. Especially now that the aliens' actions are unknown to even the remaining consortium. Or so we've been lead to believe. With Skinner's help, we therefore decided to expand out division. We carefully chose two people to work under us. One was an excellent skeptic, who was also an excellent researcher, by the name of Andrew Michaels. Our believer was a medically trained field agent with a hell of an intuition named Mary Beecher. They settled in quickly and followed our example for the investigations. Mary's theories generally were as intuitive as mine, while Andrew's rebuttal sounded like they came out of Scully's brain. We let them take over most of the field operations gradually within the next year until we spent almost every day at the office researching and getting reports from Mary and Andrew out in the field. And we came home at 5 most every day. What a strange difference from when Scully and I started the X-files. No more exhausting days following small leads, no more coming back to motels exhausted and suffering from bad dreams all night from what we've seen. But now I actually have to watch over my charges, much like Skinner does us. Me, a boss. And they respect me in my position. Can you believe it? -------------------------------------------------------- Mary and Andrew told us that they'd take care of everything this week, however, and report directly to Skinner. He can handle them. They aren't that different from us. I look at Scully's face. Weariness sits right next to the happiness on it. We consulted adoption agencies since last year, and even provided a foster home for one child, a little boy named Matthew, for two weeks. This happened about 3 months ago, but didn't last because his mother came to claim him. But 4 days ago, we got a call from an agency saying they had a seven month old child with Cerebral Palsy. The child had been abandoned there by her mother. The agency didn't even know the little girl's name. Or the extent of her disability. But the note with the child made it obvious to the agency that the mother did not want her, so they offered her to us. We grabbed onto the opportunity as soon as they offered. And cried in each other's arms after we signed the papers the next day. Now, we wait for the flight to come in from Ohio with eager hearts and apprehension. What is the little girl capable of? How much care will she need? We will love her no matter what, but there is a lot of planning we need to do. The flight lands and we wait for the passengers to disembark. "Mr. and Mrs. Mulder?" A young blond woman comes near us holding a baby. "Yes." Scully and I hold out our FBI IDs for the woman to see. She nods. "Here is your daughter." She props the little girl up for us to see. And she is beautiful. Curly brown hair and bright blue eyes. And such a cute little face. The woman smiles at us and holds out some papers for us to sign. When we do, she holds out the child to Scully, who takes her. "We will call and check up on you in two weeks. A case worker will be by in a month." She smiles at us. "Until then, good luck." "Thanks." Scully smiles back at her as I play with the baby in her arms. The baby wobbles her head a little but looks up at me and smiles. The woman smiles and walks away after handing me her card. We walk to our car slowly, gazing down at the miracle in Scully's arm the whole time. -------------------------------------------------------- The first thing I say when we start driving home is "What are we going to call her?" "I'm not sure. What do you think?" "Melissa Emily?" I say this tentitavely, not wanting to upset her, but wanting to honor what she has lost while she has been with me. "Ok." Scully says this softly. I turn my head toward her as I stop for a red light to see a tear run down her face. I wipe it away as she smiles at me. "Thank you." I kiss her gently then turn back to the road. I'm glad she approves. We call Maggie over to see Melissa first thing when we get home. She comes over within a half hour and exclaims over her. "What a beautiful child!" Then she notices that something isn't right with the way Melissa moves. She has trouble holding her head up slightly. She can't sit up on her own. Maggie looks to me. "What's wrong with her?" She says this accusingly, as if it were my fault. "She has Cerebral Palsy, Mom. We don't know the extent of her disability yet. We're getting her checked out tomorrow by a neurologist and an orthopedist." Scully says this quietly. "But why get a child like this? I mean Fox, it's enough to deal with your disability, but. . ." I didn't expect this from Maggie. "She deserves a home, Maggie. Just like all the perfect kids in the world!" My voice raises as I say this and it scares Melissa. She starts crying. I sigh. Scully shakes her head at me and gestures that she'll handle her mother. I sit down on the couch. "Scully, bring her here." Scully smiles at me and puts Melissa gently in my lap. Then she pulls her mother away to the kitchen to talk to her. While they are gone, I examine my new daughter. She is slow in her movements, but certainly active. I wave my hand in front of her and she grabs at it. I can see her left arm is definitely stronger and more accurate than her right. Her legs appears to have a similar favoritism of the left side. But all in all, she seems to have control of all her limbs fairly well. I smile and kiss her forehead as I hear the two women come back into the room. "I'm sorry Fox. I guess I reacted without thinking. She really is a beautiful child." Maggie appears genuinely contrite for her earlier words. She caressing the top of the baby's head. Just then the doorbell rings. Scully opens it to reveal Walter Skinner, who greets us with a smile. "I just brought over some things for the baby." He grins at me as he walks over to where I'm sitting. "Hi, Dad. How are you doing there?" "Fine thanks." I smile at him and turn Melissa so he can see her. "Hi cutie." She giggles at him. He then shows me what he brought. "I found this stroller for you. It's small and I figured you could use it inside the apartment. I also bought some toys for her. I thought every kid could use a teddy bear." He holds up a green bear for my inspection. "Green?" "I thought I'd get her used to the paranormal early. This bear is supposed to be from Mars." We chuckle, then Skinner turns serious. "When do you take her to the doctor?" "Tomorrow. Though just by looking at her, I'd say she's not an overly serious case." Skinner nods. "When will you know if she has any cognitive problems?" "Some testing can be done now. Other testing will be done later. She should start talking in a couple months. If she doesn't, it could indicate deficits." Scully replies to Skinner as she spreads out a blanket on the floor. "Here, Mulder, why don't we let her play with her new toys?" I give her Melissa. "Here Melissa, play with your new toys." To my amazement, Melissa looks toward her face when she says her name. Scully smiles and places her on the blanket and puts some toys near her. Just then the phone rings. Maggie picks up the receiver and hands it to me. It's the adaoption agency. "We've found the birth mother of your child. She has agreed to the adoption and has handed over the child's paperwork, includfing birth certificate and medical records. I thought you'd like to know that the child is named Melissa Emily Stanton." I blink my eyes in shock as the female case worker continues. "We will make copies of all the papers and send them to you. Have a nice day, Mr. Mulder." "Th-Thank you." I hang up and look at Scully. "Her name was already Melissa Emily." "You're kidding." "No. Melissa Emily Stanton. I guess that explains why she responded to her name already." "Only you, Mulder." Skinner chuckles. He opens the door. "I'll see both of you next week." "I better go too and give you some time alone with your new daughter." Maggie hugs us all. "Take care. Call me." "We will." Scully smiles as her mother walks out. I turn back to Melissa. "What the--?" She's not on the blanket. She's crawling on her stomach over the hardwood floor. Scully laughs. "Looks like we have a determined daughter." She points to the colorful shopping bag that Melissa is crawling toward. I smile then turn to my wife with a serious face. "Do you regret this at all?" "Adopting Melissa? No. No, not even because she's disabled, Mulder. She's a beautiful child. And who can teach her better than you?" She kisses me gently then moves to grab Melissa before she gets stuck in the bag. And curls up with our daughter and me on the couch. I watch as Melissa smiles at us. Welcome, my daughter. Welcome.