Title: The Not So Conventional Family
Author: da ruth

A/N: A little story that takes place in an alternate universe where
Emily wasn’t sick (and therefore didn’t die) and Scully was awarded
full custody. This includes the scene at the beginning of the episode
where Mulder and Emily meet, but after that it goes in a different
direction.

Summary: This is a little story set in an alternate universe where
Emily wasn't sick and Scully got full custody.

Disclaimer: I don’t own The X Files or any of the characters in the
story. They belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and FOX. I’m just playing
with them!

Spoilers: Christmas Carol/Emily (Obviously) and the rest of the story
could contain stuff from any episode up until this point. You have
been warned!

Chapter 1 - Mulder POV

As he drove, Mulder’s mind began to wander. He had barely had any
time to think about all the changes that had occurred over the last
few weeks. Ever since he’d received that phone call from Scully at
Christmas everything had been a complete blur.

He’d flown out to San Diego on the next available flight, which with
it being Christmas wasn’t exactly cheap, but the cost hadn’t even
entered his head. All the way to San Diego he re-played the phone
call over and over in his head.

****Flashback****
He was lying on his couch watching some corny Christmas film,
wallowing in the fact that he was spending another Christmas alone
when the ringing of the phone jarred him from his musings. He reached
over and lifted the phone from its cradle,

“Mulder?”

“Mulder, it’s me.” He could immediately tell something was wrong by
the sound of Scully’s voice.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I…I’ve stumbled upon something up here, Mulder. I need you.” Mulder
could tell that she was trying to hold back tears and as soon as she
said she needed him he was up of the chair and in his room, packing a
bag quicker than a………

“Scully, what’s happened?”

“There’s this girl, Mulder. She looked so much like Melissa…I was
sure she was Melissa’s daughter, so I had the DNA tests ran…they
didn’t match but they were so close they ran the samples against
another one they had…mine. Mulder, this little girl is my daughter.”

Whatever Mulder had thought he was going to hear, that was not it.
Scully had a child?! But he’d seen her medical file, she’d never been
pregnant and then when she was taken they had harvested her ova
and…Those bastards!

He was brought out of his reverie by the sound of Scully’s voice,
“I’m fighting for full custody of her, Mulder. She’s my only chance
to have a child. Would you…would you testify as a character witness
for me?”

“Scully, I’ll be on the next flight up. Do you want me to come to
your brother’s house?” he asked with trepidation, not relishing the
idea of knocking on Bill’s front door.

“No, we’ll be at the San Diego County Children's Centre.”

“Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
****End Flashback****

He’d arrived at the Children’s Centre and as soon as he saw Emily,
his heart had melted; she looked so much like Scully. He did that
silly impression of Mr. Potato head and she smiled at him and melted
his heart even further. He had seen the love Scully had for this
little girl and although he knew that if he wanted them both to be
safe then he should have denied her request to be a character witness
at her adoption hearing, he just couldn’t do it. He could tell that
Scully needed this child in her life; it was her only chance at
having a biological child of her own. And he loved her too much to
take that away from her.

Yeah, he loved Scully. He’d loved her for a long time now but had
only woken up to his feelings when she was in the hospital after her
cancer had metastasized, when he thought he was going to lose her.
But then he was given a second chance; which he had vowed he would
take. He had planned on inviting her to spend Christmas with him so
he could tell her how he felt, but she’d arranged to fly to San Diego
with her mother to welcome her new nephew into the world.

But now, it wasn’t just the two of them to consider; there was Emily
too, so he figured he'd hold off on telling her for a while. Scully
had been granted full custody of the child and she was bringing her
back to Washington D.C. today. He was on his way to the airport to
meet them off their flight.

He had flown back just after she had been granted custody. He had
offered to come back and explain the situation to Skinner and also to
help get her apartment ready for when she brought Emily home. He’d
decorated her spare room and bought Emily a bed, wardrobe, drawers, a
little desk and as many toys and books as he thought she deserved.

Skinner, although shocked, was surprisingly understanding and had
approved his and Scully’s idea of The X Files remaining open, but
with Mulder doing the majority of the fieldwork while Scully remained
in D.C. and carried out any research of lab work that was required.

Mulder had spent the majority of his evenings at Scully’s getting
things ready with the help of the Gunmen and then at the weekends he
flew up to San Diego to see Scully and Emily. Even though she had
been given custody, she had to wait a couple of weeks for all the
paperwork to come through, during which time Emily remained at the
Children’s Centre. Scully, had visited Emily everyday to get to know
her and bond with her and they had taken her on days out when Mulder
had visited. Emily quickly became more at ease with them, and her
shyness had almost disappeared; she had even started to call Scully,
“Mommy” Well, around him and Scully anyway. When she was around
Margaret or Bill and Tara she reverted to the shy little girl she had
been when Mulder had first met her. Margaret, although having her
doubts, tried to accept Emily as her granddaughter, but it was
obvious she was fonder of Matthew. Tara was too pre-occupied with
being a new mother to really pay attention to anyone other than
Matthew. And Bill, well he just couldn’t accept Emily and
purposefully ignored her or any reference to her.

Mulder suspected that this was the reason that Scully had checked
herself into a motel for her last week in San Diego. She told him it
was because she felt like she was imposing on Bill and Tara,
especially with their new baby. But Mulder could see the hurt in her
eyes every time Bill refused to acknowledge her daughter. He was glad
they were coming home, away from it all.

He pulled into the airport parking lot and checked his watch; 11:21.
They’d just be getting off the plane and getting their luggage. He
made his way into the airport and headed towards to arrival gate.

~~
Chapter 2 - Scully’s POV

Dana Scully looked over at the little girl asleep next to her, her
head resting on the airplane window. She’d had a very exciting day,
which had begun with a very early morning, so Scully couldn’t have
deprived her of a nap, even if she may not sleep later. This little
girl was her daughter, Emily whom she hadn’t known anything about
until a few weeks ago.

When she’d opened the envelope with the DNA test results in and saw
that in fact she, not her sister as had been suspected, was Emily’s
mother she could barely believe it. But she didn’t know what the
people who took her had done and at the end of the day she couldn’t
deny the scientific proof that was placed in front of her.

Her maternal instinct had kicked in quickly and it didn’t take much
consideration to know what to do next. She had to file for full
custody of her daughter. The adoption services had asked for
character witnesses and there was only one name that Scully could
think of to testify for her: Mulder.

They’d been partners for 5 years and they were best friends. They’d
supported each other through some of the worst times in their lives
and celebrated the best. Over the past few months Scully had been
conscious that her relationship with Mulder had been developing into
something that was more than just good friends.

That was one of the reasons she had decided to go to San Diego. She
thought that if she and Mulder spent some time apart then it would
help her sort out her feelings for him. In actual fact, she hadn’t
got much time to think about it at all, apart from the flight out
there. Her thoughts on the flight had just gone round and round in a
big circle along the lines of ‘I miss Mulder. What does that mean? I
miss him? But does that mean I want to take our relationship further?
I don’t know, I just miss him.’ She’d nearly driven herself crazy.
And any hope she had of continuing these thoughts in San Diego were
brought to an abrupt halt by her discovery of Emily. Even before she
knew she was her Mother she felt a strong connection to her and was
determined to protect her.

Mulder’s impassioned testimony at the court hearing was the reason
she had been granted full custody, she was sure. He told the judge,
although she had never give birth, Emily was biologically her child,
and that as this could be her only chance to raise her own flesh and
blood he didn’t believe that it should be taken away. He went on to
describe how she would be the best mother possible to this child. The
judge had countered that life could be hard as a single mother and
that children should have the support of both a mother and a father
figure. Again Mulder jumped to her defense saying that he knew she
would be able to cope and as for the presence of the father figure,
he was her best friend and he would act as a father figure to Emily.

His speech had brought a tear to her eye and hearing him commit
herself to her little girl made her realize what the feelings she was
experiencing towards him meant; she had fallen for him. And from
looking into his eyes when he made that commitment, she could see he
felt something for her too.

She knew now that she had to tell him but her main priority was
getting her daughter home and settled. As if on cue, the seatbelt
lights flashed on and the pilot announced they were coming into land.
She reached across and swept Emily’s hair out of her face,

“Emily honey, were nearly there sweetie. You need to sit up straight
so I can put your seatbelt on.”

Emily slowly opened her eyes and rubbed them with her hands.
“M’tired.” She mumbled before trying to go back to sleep.

“No sweetie, you can’t go back to sleep. We’ll be landing soon and
you don’t want to be asleep when Mulder picks us up do you?”

The little girl perked up at the sound of Mulder’s name. She really
had taken to him. “I miss Mulder.”

“I know sweetie but we’ll see him soon. Come on, sit up and let’s
read a story while we wait.” Scully pulled Emily’s favorite book out
of her bag and began to read to her.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get far into the story before the pressure
in the cabin changed with the descent, and Emily’s ears began to
hurt.

“Mommy. It hurts,” she cried, putting her hands over her ears, as if
trying to block out the pain. Scully pulled a sweet out of her pocket
and instructed Emily to suck on it to try an alleviate some of the
pain. She put her arm around her daughter and pulled her into her,
whispering comforting words into her hair, and kissing her head.

Eventually they landed and Scully lifted their bags down from the
over head storage and helped Emily on with her little Winnie the Pooh
back pack and somehow managed to carry her purse, hand luggage and
hold on to Emily’s hand; it was a skill she was still mastering.

She managed to grab a trolley for their luggage and, luckily their
bags were some of the first off the plane; Emily as still very tired
so Scully wanted to get her home as soon as possible.

They made their way to the arrival lounge and Scully scanned the
crowd for Mulder. There were so many people…but then she heard it,
that all too familiar voice,

“Scully, over here!”

She turned in the direction of Mulder’s shout and then she saw him.
He was standing a few rows back in the crowd, and as he moved forward
Scully couldn’t help but smile. He was holding a big sign, on which
he had written “DANA AND EMILY SCULLY” and he was also holding a
giant Winnie the Pooh, and a bunch of flowers.

Emily caught sight of him and ran towards him,

“MULDER!!”

Mulder bent down, placed the bear on the floor and opened his arms
for Emily to run into.

“Hello you! Are you okay? Your eyes are all red and puffy. Have you
been crying?” he asked, pulling back from her a little so he could
look at her.

“It hurt, Mulder.”

“What hurt darling?”

“She didn’t like the pressure change on the descent; I think it hurt
her ears a bit.” Scully interjected, and then added a quick hello.

“Hey yourself,” he replied standing up, flowers in hand, giving
Scully a big hug. He pulled back and handed her the flowers, “these
are for you. And this, Emily…” he said lifting up the giant cuddly
toy, “is for you.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, honey,” he replied. Although Emily wasn’t listening
– she was too busy talking to her new Winnie the Pooh; telling him
all about her flight.

“Thank you for the flowers Mulder, they’re beautiful.”

“Well, I’d bought Emily something and didn’t want you feeling left
out. Besides, you deserve them. How was the flight?”

“It was fine, she slept through most of it and I caught up on some
reading and just watched her. I can’t believe she’s mine, Mulder. It
seems too good to be true.”

“Believe me, Scully. It’s true.” He turned around and picked Emily
up, while Scully placed Pooh bear carefully on the luggage trolley.
Then he put his free arm around Scully and the newly formed, but not
so conventional family headed for the car park.

~~

They hadn’t been in the car for more than about 10 minutes, before
Emily had fallen asleep.

“She must be really tired,” commented Mulder glancing at her in his
rear view mirror.

“Yeah, I don’t think she had much sleep last night, with all the
excitement and we had a very early morning today. It’s a big thing
for her; first time on a plane, new city, new house. She’ll be okay.
I just don’t want to let her sleep for too long, or she won’t sleep
tonight,” replied Scully. “By the way…”

Scully was rudely interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone coming
from her bag. She rustled around trying to find it; removing wet
wipes, a small cuddly rabbit, some sweets and a dummy in the process,

“Hello?...Oh, hi Mom…no we’re fine…landed about 45 minutes ago…oh
right, no of course…ok, I’ll call you in a few days…yeah, bye.”
Scully sighed as she disconnected the call and Mulder could sense
sadness and disappointment.

“Everything okay?”

“Sort of. That was Mom; she’s decided to stay in San Diego with her
‘new grandchild’ for a few more weeks. She does have 2 new
grandchildren y’know, not that she’d admit it, but I thought she was
coming home, Mulder. I thought she’d be on hand if I needed any
advice or anything.”

Mulder who had never heard Scully admit to needing help or advice
before, pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned to
face her. He took her hand in his and told her,

“Hey, you are already a brilliant Mom. Look…” he indicated at the
stuff she’d pulled from her bag earlier while searching for her
phone, “you’re already carrying around wet wipes and dummies.” Scully
smiled slightly at this. “Seriously though, you’re a natural at this,
I can tell and if there is anything that comes up where you need
advice or help, which I doubt there will be, I’m here.”

Scully opened her mouth to respond, but Mulder put her finger to her
lips to shush her.

“Before you say it, I know I don’t exactly have masses of experience
of bringing up children, but I’m sure whatever we need to know,
there’ll be a book or a website with the answer. Okay?”

“Okay.” Scully said, sounding a bit calmer about the situation.

“Now, let’s get you two home.”

Luckily there wasn’t much traffic at that time of day, so the drive
home only took another 40 minutes. They pulled up outside Scully’s
apartment block and Mulder got their bags from the trunk while Scully
helped Emily out of her car seat. She was still very sleepy, so
Scully carried her to the apartment.

Mulder got out his key and unlocked the door. Before he opened it, he
turned to Scully,

“Close, your eyes.”

Scully and Emily complied and Mulder took Scully’s spare hand and led
her into the apartment.

“Okay, you can open them now.”

Scully smiled on seeing her front room, and Emily giggled; Mulder had
put up a big banner saying “WELCOME HOME SCULLY AND EMILY”

Mulder turned to them,

“You like?”

“Yeah,” agreed Emily enthusiastically as she reached her arms out
wanting Mulder to take her. Mulder took her from Scully and twirled
her round in his arms, which led to lots of laughing from the little
girl.

After a few minutes of twirling, Mulder flopped down on the couch
with Emily on his knee. He leant in and whispered to her, as if
telling her a secret,

“Do you want to see you room?”

Emily nodded, and climbed off Mulder’s knee. She took Mulder’s hand
and he led her to what was now her room.

The door which was painted white had “Emily’s Room” stenciled on in
pink with some pink starts around it. Emily ran her finger over the
writing,

“That says Emily,”

“Yeah, it does. Well done,” praised Mulder, “shall we look inside?”
he asked reaching for the door handle.

“I can do it,” said Emily and she turned the handle and opened the
door.

Inside was every little girl’s dream bedroom. The walls were painted
white, with pink fairies and stars stenciled on them, along with a
pink border about half way up. The carpet was pink with big white
stars on it, each with a fairy inside. There was a matching furniture
set, which was pink and white and included a bed, 2 door wardrobe,
bed-side table, toy chest, a little desk complete with some paper and
crayons, and a chair. On the bed there was a patchwork quilt and some
pink and white cushions

Mulder watched Emily’s reaction. Her eyes went wide as she took
everything in, and her smile just grew bigger and bigger. In that
moment Mulder decided that he was going to do everything in his power
to keep this little girl smiling.

“It’s brilliant;” exclaimed Emily, “thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Emily ran out into the kitchen to find Scully, who was making lunch.
“Mommy, Mommy, come and see my room, it’s really pretty.” She grabbed
Scully’s hand and pulled her to her room.

Scully looked around, while Emily went to investigate the toy box.

“Wow! Aren’t you a lucky girl? Have you said thank you to Mulder?”

“Yeah, I did. Can I play in here for a bit before lunch Mommy?”

“Of course you can, sweetie. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Mulder followed Scully into the kitchen,

“Is there anything I can do?” he enquired. Scully turned around to
face him, tears forming in her eyes,

“You’ve done more than enough already.” Mulder must’ve looked
confused because Scully quickly clarified, “Her room, Mulder. It’s
amazing. Thank you so much.” She stepped towards him and engulfed him
in a hug.

“It was nothing Scully, really. I was glad to help. Seeing how happy
it’s made both of you is enough thanks.”

Scully became aware that the hug was lasting longer than was normal
for friends but she just couldn’t bring herself to pull away. Having
his arms around her was one of the things Scully loved most. It made
her feel safe; not that she’d ever admit that to anyone though.
Unfortunately their hug was interrupted by the oven timer, letting
her know that lunch was ready. The reluctantly pulled away from each
other and Mulder went about setting the table while Scully removed
the pasta bake from the oven,

“Mulder...How much do I owe you for her room?”

“I’m not sure Scully, but I’ll sit down over the next couple of days
and work it out, okay?”

“Okay.” Scully went out in to the hallway and called to Emily. “Emily
honey, lunch is ready.”

Scully began to serve the pasta bake and she noticed that Mulder had
even bought child sized dishes and cutlery – he really had thought of
everything.

-------------

After lunch Mulder had to go into work for a meeting, much to Emily’s
disappointment, but he promised her that he would be back before she
went to bed, maybe even earlier.

Left alone for the afternoon, Scully and Emily continued to get to
know one another and even took a trip to the local park. On their way
back to the apartment they met Mrs. Whitehead, Scully’s elderly
neighbor who took an instant liking to Emily and even gave her a
dollar.

Things were going well for them, ‘almost too well,’ thought Scully
and she was right.

It was after dinner that things changed. Emily hadn’t eaten much of
the chicken that Scully had made despite Scully pleading with her to
finish it, and when Scully suggested that it was time for Emily’s
bath, things went even further downhill.

“But my other Mommy always let me watch TV for a bit before having my
bath,” cried Emily. Scully, determined that after the fiasco that was
dinner time to gain back some control over the 3 year old, replied,

“You can watch some television after your bath, sweetie. Now come
on.”

But it didn’t work, Emily just starting crying even more and when
Scully went to her, she pushed her away,

“I don’t like it here. I want my other Mommy back. I want to go
home.”

It hurt Scully so much to hear Emily say she wanted her other Mommy
and she sat on the floor and, also began to cry. “I’m sorry Emily,
but you can’t go home. And your other Mommy is in heaven sweetie.”

Emily’s tantrum was getting worse by this point, and she was lying on
the floor waving her arms and legs and screaming,

“I WANT MY MOMMY BACK!

This was the scene that greeted Mulder as he let himself into the
apartment, having heard Emily’s screams from down the hall. He
glanced from Emily to Scully and once sure that no one was physically
hurt he rushed to Scully and put his arm around her.

“What’s going on, Scully?”

“She wouldn’t go for her bath and when I pressed the issue, she just
started crying saying she wanted her other Mommy back and that she
wanted to go home.”

Mulder quickly assessed the situation and came up with a plan.

“Scully, why don’t you go into the kitchen and give me a minute with
her?” Scully agreed and left Mulder with Emily. He walked over to her
picked her up off the floor and put her on the chair and held her
there. He spoke to her in a voice that was firm, but not aggressive,

“Emily you need to calm down. This behavior is not acceptable. You
are going to sit on this chair for 3 minutes and think about your
behavior and then you will go and say sorry to your Mommy.”

He let go of her and she defied him and got down off the chair.
Mulder again picked her up and put her back in the chair.

“Nooooooooooooo!” she cried and kicked out at him.

“Emily, listen to me. The more you fight and get down off the chair,
the longer you will spend on there.”

Emily defied Mulder a few more times, and each time he silently
picked her up and placed her back on the chair. Eventually Emily
realized that it was fruitless to try and argue with him and she sat
on the chair and began to calm down.

When Mulder was certain she wasn’t going to move again he got up and
went and stood at the kitchen door. Emily watched him and he was
careful to make sure he could still see her. He motioned for Scully
to come to him and when she did he spoke softly,

“She’s starting to calm down now. It’s just a matter of making sure
she knows who’s in charge.”

“I tried that, but it just seemed to make her worse.”

“I know, I know. But you just got too emotional, which is completely
understandable and because of that she could tell she had a chance of
getting her own way.”

Mulder looked at his watch and then at Emily. She’d been on the chair
nearly 3 minutes and she had stopped crying and her breathing was
returning to normal. He walked over to her,

“Okay Emily, it’s been 3 minutes. Now, are you going to say sorry to
your Mommy?”

Emily nodded her head, and Mulder helped her down off the chair. She
walked over to Scully, sheepishly.

“M’sorry Mommy. I didn’t mean to make you cry. I love you”

Scully picked her up and gave her a big cuddle. “That’s okay, honey.
I forgive you, and I love you too.”

Mulder walked up to them and said,

“So, Emily. How about having that bath?”

Emily nodded and Scully took her to the bathroom. Mulder braced
himself against the counter and sighed. That was one of the hardest
things he’d ever had to do. He hated seeing either Scully or Emily
upset, but he knew that if Emily was allowed to get away with things
then she would pick up on that and carry on doing it, then her
behavior pattern would be harder to break in the future.

He finished clearing up in the kitchen and he eventually heard
giggling from the bathroom which made him feel slightly more at ease.
Emily and Scully had obviously dealt with what had happened before.

Once he’d finished clearing up he went to the living room and
switched on the TV and began channel hopping.

After about 15 minutes, Scully entered the room and told him that
Emily was in bed, but wanted Mulder to go and tuck her in. He arrived
at the door to her room and found her snuggled up beside her Winnie
the Pooh bear. She was whispering to him but Mulder could just about
make out that it was about her ‘real’ Mommy and Daddy. Mulder
listened for a minute and then decided to make his presence known,

“Hey sweetie,” he said as he entered. Emily abruptly stopped talking
to the bear and even looked a little guilty. “It’s okay to think
about them and talk about them,” reassured Mulder.

“Really?”

“Yeah, but it’s also important to remember that saying that they let
you do things that your ‘new’ Mommy won’t, isn’t nice. Your ‘new’
Mommy is different and has different rules and hearing you say those
things upsets her. Do you think you can try and remember that?”

“I’ll try, Mulder.” Emily smiled sleepily

“Okay, good girl. Time for you to get some sleep I think.
Night-night.”

“Night-night Mulder. Love you.”

“Love you too Em.”

He kissed her on the forehead and went back to the living room to
find Scully, but she wasn’t there. He turned the TV off and he heard
soft sobbing coming from the direction of her bedroom. He walked to
her room and knocked on the door.

“Scully? Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

He entered and she was under the bed covers, snuggled up against a
pillow in a similar position to Emily had been and Mulder could see
tears running down her face. He walked over to the side of the bed
and lay down on top of the covers behind her; wrapping his arms
around her.

“Ssssh, it’s okay Scully.”

“It’s not Mulder. I just can’t seem to get past what happened
earlier; the way she screamed at me that she wanted her Mommy back.
I’m her Mommy, Mulder.”

“Yeah, you are but she doesn’t realize that. To her we are just
people who are taking care of her now because her parents are dead.”
Scully let out a sob at this. “I know that’s hard to hear but it’s
very unlikely that in 5 or 6 years she’ll even consciously remember
them. I mean come on, how much can you remember from when you were
her age?”

“Not much,” admitted Scully.

“It’s just going to take a couple of weeks for her to settle in to
the new routine and new surroundings, that’s all. But it might help
her if we did something to help her to say goodbye to her parents.
What d’ya think?”

“Maybe, Mulder. We’ll see.”

Mulder decided now was not the time to push the issue any further,
but he made a mental note to mention it in a few days, as he felt it
was important that Emily had a chance to say her goodbyes.

“Mulder? Did you hear me?”

“Sorry, I was miles away then.”

“I asked if you’d stay here tonight, just in case anything happens
with Emily.”

“Of course I’ll stay Scully, I was planning on it anyway; you didn’t
even have to ask.” He began to move away from her and get off the
bed.

Scully turned and grabbed his hand,

“Where are you going?” she queried

“I was going to get the spare blankets and pillows and set up camp on
you couch like usual.”

“No, Mulder. Will you stay here?” she repeated, but this time
emphasizing the word here, and tugging him back down onto the bed.

“Scu-” he began.

“Please Mulder, I just need, no – I want you to hold me.” Scully
admitted, surprising herself with her sudden need to tell Mulder the
truth. She hoped he wouldn’t run from her or be too embarrassed by
what she had said.

Mulder smiled at her admission that this was something she wanted,
rather than needed – could it be that she harbored similar feelings
for him as he did for her? Either way, now was not the time to
address the issue so he did the next best thing. He got into bed
beside her, took off his jeans and fell asleep holding Scully in his
arms.

~~
It had now been several weeks since Emily had come to live with
Scully. There had been a few tantrums in this time but Scully had,
with Mulder’s help, taken control of the situation and implemented
the same strategy as Mulder had that first night. To Scully’s
delight, the strategy seemed to be working and Emily was a lot calmer
and less likely to throw a tantrum.

While that issue was well on it’s way to being resolved, Scully had
another one deal with…Mulder. Or to be more precise; her and Mulder.
Since he’d slept beside her that first night, he’d barely gone home.
It wasn’t that they planned it, but he would come round after work
have dinner with them, and after helping put Emily to bed, the two of
them would hang out watching TV or going over case files or just
talking and then they would both go to bed, her bed. The first few
times they had both made excuses as to why he should stay, his being,
“I’ll stay in case Emily wakes up and you need a hand” and hers being
something like, “you shouldn’t go home tonight Mulder, it’s late,
you’re tired and the roads look pretty bad,” but after a while
neither of them bothered with excuses any more; they had fallen into
a strangely comfortable routine and they both just assumed that he
would stay. In a morning, he would join her and Emily for breakfast
before calling at home to change on his way into work.

Neither of them had brought it up, nor had they mentioned the
snuggling on the couch in an evening or at weekend or how they
‘accidentally’ came to be holding hands in the park when they took
Emily last week. Scully had been happy to let it this new found
closeness go unmentioned; scared that if she said anything it would
cease and she would begin to feel lonely again

However, all that had changed this afternoon after an innocent
comment made by Emily.

****FLASHBACK****
They had just had lunch and had finished a game of hungry hippos when
Emily asked if she could go into her room and color,

“Of course you can sweetie. Let’s just tidy this up first, okay?”
Emily nodded and they began to help Scully put the game away. As they
were doing this, she asked,

“Mommy, what time will Daddy be home?” The question had stopped
Scully in her tracks and thinking she was talking about her ‘old’
daddy said,

“Emily, honey, we’ve been through this. Your Daddy isn’t coming home,
he’s in heaven, remember? We said goodbye to him and your other Mommy
when we let the balloons off in the park.”

“No, not that Daddy – my new Daddy,” said Emily as though it should
have been painstakingly obvious what she meant.

“Emily, I don’t understand…”

“My new Daddy; Mulder.”

“Mulder? What makes you think he’s your Daddy?”

“Well, he lives here and you are like a Mommy and a Daddy; you hold
hands and cuddle and stuff. Is he not my Daddy?”

Scully couldn’t believe it, had their behavior been that obvious that
her little girl had noticed. But thinking about it Mulder had been
practically living there over the last few weeks; who could blame her
for assuming that he was her father?

“Well no, Mulder’s not your Daddy, sweetie. Not really.”

“Why?” queried Emily.

“Why? Well, I suppose because I’ve never asked him to be.”

“Why?” pressed the little girl.

“I don’t know honey. Probably in case he didn’t want to be. When I
agreed to be your new Mommy it was just going to be me who looked
after you.”

“But Mulder looks after me. Why wouldn’t he want to be my Daddy?”

“Err...I don’t know,” answered Scully. How could you explain these
things to a 3 year old?

“Can we ask him to be my Daddy? Please?”

“I suppose so. Let me talk to him tonight and see what he says.”

“Okay Mommy,” she replied, seemingly content with Scully’s offer
before skipping off to her room.

“Oh and Emily…” Scully shouted after her, “Don’t call him Daddy until
I’ve had a chance to talk to him.”
****END FLASHBACK****

So that brought her to now; waiting for Mulder to tuck Emily in so
they could talk. She had already told Mulder, when he came in from
work, that she had something that she needed to discuss with him once
Emily was in bed. Emily had been as good as gold; she hadn’t
mentioned their conversation from the afternoon and she hadn’t called
Mulder ‘Daddy’ once. Scully was really proud of her.

She wasn’t really looking forward to this conversation with Mulder.
She didn’t want him to start sleeping at his own place; she would
miss him far too much. They had both slept much better over the last
few weeks, while they had shared a bed, than they had slept before.
Scully didn’t think Mulder had had one nightmare while he had been
staying with them.

“She was out like a light – asleep as soon as her head touched the
pillow,” informed Mulder as he entered the living room and took a
seat on the sofa, facing Scully, “So…you said you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah…Emily said something today that made me think about our
situation.”

“Our situation?” asked Mulder.

“Yeah. Let me start from the beginning. Emily and I were tidying up
earlier and she asked what time her Daddy was coming home.”

“Her Dad, but he’s de-“

“Dead, I know. And I explained that to her and she said she didn’t
mean him. She meant her new Daddy...she meant you Mulder.”

“Me? Emily thinks of me as her Daddy?” While Mulder was shocked, he
also couldn’t hide the happiness and pride that he felt at the fact
the Emily thought of him as her Daddy. S

Scully noted this and chuckled slightly, “Seems you’ve made quite an
impression on my little girl,”

“It would appear so. What did you say to her?”

“I explained, as best you can to a 3 year old, that you weren’t
actually her Daddy and she wanted to know why.”

Mulder laughed at this, “Why is it that kids always want to know
why?”

Scully joined Mulder in his laughter for a few seconds before
continuing, “Anyway, the long and the short of it is that she wants
me to ask you if you will be her Daddy?”

Mulder was too shocked to speak. Emily actually wanted him to be her
Dad. It was a big responsibility and Mulder wasn’t sure he was up to
the job. I mean, his Father wasn’t exactly a great role model. His
experience of what a happy family was supposed to be consisted
entirely of the 12 years before his sister was abducted (and he
probably didn’t remember anything before he was 5 or 6).

Mulder thought back over the last few weeks with Scully and Emily. It
had been fairly successful. Emily had had a few tantrums but together
he and Scully has managed to deal with them and she appeared to be
more settled now. The three of them had fun together and Emily
obviously had no problems with his ability to be a good Dad or she
wouldn’t want him to be.

When Mulder didn’t say anything, Scully continued, “I know it’s a big
decision to make Mulder and if you don’t want to answer now, that’s
okay. Take some time to think about it; the last thing I want is for
you to rush this decision and it be the wrong one for either you or
her.”

By this point Mulder had finished his musings and managed to find his
voice, “There’s nothing to think about, Scully. I committed myself to
Emily ’and you’ he added silently at the adoption hearing and I don’t
intend to go back on that. If you’re okay with it then I would love
to be Emily’s father. I don’t know how successful I will be but I am
willing to give it a damn good try.”

“I’m more than okay with it Mulder. Emily needs a father and I can’t
think of anyone else who I’d want it to be,” replied Scully, a blush
forming in her cheeks at her response.

“We should celebrate, Scully,” exclaimed Mulder as he rose from her
couch and headed to the kitchen. “I thought I spied a bottle of
Merlot in here the other day.”

She heard him rustling around the kitchen and a few minutes later he
re-appeared with the wine and 2 glasses.

“Your powers of observation and investigation astound me, Mulder,”
she quipped.

“Well that is why they put the I in FBI, Scully,” replied Mulder with
a smirk as he took a seat next to Scully on the couch and poured them
both some wine.

Scully smiled as his words conjured up the memory of her first day on
the X Files. It would be 6 years in March since she’d been assigned
to partner Mulder. They’d come so far in that time and had
experienced so much together. About a year ago she had told him she
wouldn’t change a day and that was still true now, even after her
cancer.

“So, Scully when do you think we should tell Emily? Should we wake
her?” asked Mulder, passing a glass to Scully. Scully could tell
Mulder was excited at the prospect of telling Emily he would be her
Dad but they had to be sensible about it,

“If we wake her and tell her now, we’ll never get her back to sleep,”
she reasoned, taking a sip of her wine. “We can tell her tomorrow.”

“Over breakfast?” suggested Mulder.

Scully wasn’t sure if the questioning tone in his voice meant he was
asking if it was okay to tell her at breakfast or if he was asking if
he would be here for breakfast, but she decided now would be a good
time to discuss their ‘arrangement,’ “Mulder about you staying for
breakfast…”

The apprehensive tone of Scully’s voice immediately sent Mulder into
panic mode, “Is it not okay Scully?? I mean if you don’t want me to
stay, you can always tell me to leave, you know that right?” offered
Mulder, while silently pleading ‘please don’t tell me to go. I really
want to stay and hold you.’

“It’s not that I don’t want you to stay. I do…that’s part of the
problem.”

“I don’t understand, Scully”

Scully sighed, “I need to say some stuff Mulder, but I’m probably
going to stumble over it, so I need you not to say anything until I’m
done okay?” She stood up and moved in front of him, sitting on the
coffee table so she could be face to face with him.

“Okaaaay…and if I want to reply you will afford me the same
courtesy?”

“Of course.” Scully took a deep breath and put her glass down next to
her on the table. “The reason Emily has come to think of you as her
father is that you’ve practically been living here for the past few
weeks. Ever since that first night you’ve only gone home to change
and I’m worried about the effect that this ‘situation’ is having on
Emily…and on me.” Scully paused to allow her words to sink in and to
watch Mulder’s reaction. It was hard to pinpoint the exact look that
was on his face but Scully could see traces of hurt, rejection, worry
but also of resigned understanding. She reached out and touched his
hands, hoping that in some way her touch would make him feel a little
more at ease decided to continue, “Mulder, we have been best friends
for a long time and I don’t want that to change. But I need to know
what is going on with us. I mean, how many best friends do you know
who share a bed on a regular basis; sleeping wrapped in each others
arms, how many of them snuggle up on the couch together watching a
film or hold hands when they go to the park? How many people keep
toothbrushes and razors in their best friend’s bathroom?” Scully had
got herself so worked up by this point that she was now pacing the
living room, “What exactly are we, Mulder? How would you define our
relationship?”

Scully flopped back down on the couch and put her head down; looking
at the floor. Mulder took this as indication that she had finished.

“Scully, I’ll be honest; I have no clue what we are at the moment or
how to define us. But I do know that my feelings for you go beyond
what someone should probably feel for their best friend.” Mulder
paused at this point and put his hand under Scully’s chin and lifted
her head so their eyes met. “I’m in love with you Scully, I’m sure of
it.” Scully’s eyes went wide He feels the same?! “I don’t know if you
feel the same way,” he continued, “and if you don’t then that’s okay;
I don’t expect anything from you, just please don’t hate me. I don’t
want to lose you. We can go back to the way things were or we can-“

Mulder didn’t get any further because while he’d been babbling Scully
had closed the gap between them and was now kissing him. The kiss was
a slow passionate affair. Mulder couldn’t help but smile as he cupped
Scully's face in his hands. She responded by wrapping her arms around
his neck and opening her mouth to him. Mulder gladly accepted her
invitation and swept his tongue over her lips and into her mouth. He
moaned as she flicked her tongue against his. Mulder lowered his
hands to Scully’s shoulders and gently pushed her backwards so she
was lying on the couch. He followed her down, never letting their
lips break contact. Scully moaned into Mulder’s mouth and intensified
the movements of her tongue, touching and tasting every inch of his
mouth. Their kisses continued for several minutes before Scully put
her hand on the centre of Mulder’s chest and pushed up, signaling
that she wanted to stop. Mulder complied, albeit reluctantly and
broke the kiss,

“You okay, Scully?”

“Yeah, I just think we should stop for a bit, that’s all.”

“Oh, okay,” said Mulder his voice full of melancholy.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to do that Mulder,” she reassured, “or
that I don’t want to do it some more – I just think we should talk
first. Plus the fact that I don’t really want to grope on the couch
like a couple of horny teenagers.”

Mulder relaxed a bit at her words and even managed a small chuckle at
her comment about horny teenagers.

“So…” began Scully, trying to find the right words, “how long have
you felt…how long have you been in love with me?”

“I only realized I was in love with you when you were in the
hospital, with your cancer, but looking back I guess fell in love
with you for a few years before that…possibly around the time of your
abduction?” Mulder felt strangely exposed, pouring his heart out to
Scully with no confirmation from her that she felt the same way.
Okay, yes she’d kissed him and indicated that she wanted to kiss him
some more, but she hadn’t actually voiced her feelings. Mulder
thought that it was way overdue, “Y’know Scully you’ve not actually
clarified how you feel about me?”

“What, the kiss wasn’t enough?”

“Well you see; I’m one of these people that need hard, undeniable,
irrefutable proof before I’ll believe!” Mulder explained a glint of
amusement in his eyes. Scully just laughed and Mulder continued,
“Seriously though, as great as the kiss was; and oh boy was it great.
I’d like for you to tell me.”

“I don’t know when exactly I fell in love with you Mulder, I’ve had
these feelings for you for a long time; at least since my abduction,
maybe earlier,” she told him, feeling relieved that she didn’t have
to keep this to herself anymore. “I didn’t actually come to realize
that they were anything more than very strong feelings of friendship
until Emily’s custody case. Hearing you make such an impassioned
speech was like a switch had been flicked. It made me finally realize
what was right in front of me all these years; I’m in love with you
too, Mulder.”

Mulder leant towards her and began kissing her. His kiss was slow and
unbelievably erotic. The kiss lasted a few minutes and when Mulder
pulled away, Scully got up and walked to her bedroom door and lent
seductively against the door frame,

“Come to bed Mulder,” she said in the sexist voice she could find.

Mulder didn’t need to be told twice. He gathered the wine and their
glasses and headed for Scully’s bedroom. He guessed he would be here
for breakfast after all.