Title: Not The Natural Way Author: X_fairy (x_fa...@gmx.net) Disclaimer: The X-files belong to CC and Mulder and Scully belong to each other, not to me! No infringement intended! Rating: PG-13 for a bit of cursing Category: Fowl-fic, MSR Spoilers: none that I know of! Archive: Anywhere, with my name and addy, but please let me know! Feedback: eaten alive!! Summary: Scully comes back from her Christmas vacation to find that Mulder is married to Diana Fowley. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Not The Natural Way By X_fairy This couldn't be true, it just couldn't! What had she done to him to deserves *this*? But it perfectly topped of the awful time she'd had lately. Shot in the arm by some stupid fucking robber, involved in an absolutely dumb and avoidable traffic accident, her mother was going blind, her brother was pissed off because she made it to San Diego only in time for New Year's Eve, and last of all her partner was getting married to the most treacherous fucking bitch possible - Diana Fowley. What sort of Christmas present was that? Coming home to the news that your partner of six years, your goddamn *best friend* - and not to forget the man you'd been in love with for at least two years - had married the person you hated most on the whole goddamn planet! She breathed in deeply and stared at her phone as if it was to blame. She had wanted to let Mulder know that she was back from her brother's, and instead of him Diana Fowley had picked up and cheerfully informed Scully that she was now Mrs. Mulder. "Oh, hello Dana. We tried everything to reach you, but apparently you forgot to tell anybody where you were going. I'm sorry you missed the wedding." Scully had nearly freaked out, completely forgetting the small shock of the bitch calling her Dana over this much heavier one, "WEDDING? Whose wedding?" "Fox's and mine. Didn't he tell you." It was more of a statement than a question. Scully could have strangled her. Sure enough the bitch had taken care that Mulder wouldn't inform her. Otherwise she definitely would have prevented it from happening. But the bitch hadn't even let her speak to Mulder today. There was only one person she could consult on this - or, more exactly, three persons, but one illegal entity... What a term, but it fit perfectly for the three strangest men she had ever met. She picked up the phone again, "Turn of the tape, Frohike, it's Scully." Half an hour later she was sitting in their office, a glass of Frohike's Whiskey in her hand. The whole thing had shaken her more than she cared to admit. "Now tell me, what the heck did get Mulder the loner to marry an old, and obviously unhappy, love?" "Nobody ever said it was love. You know it was her fault he started off on the porno flicks? If you look at it closely, she made him what he was when you first met him." Frohike still held the Whiskey bottle in his hand, shaking it over and over. "A lonely, disturbed, heartbroken man, that's what she made him!" Scully fumed. "And he made her a baby." Frohike's voice was more matter-of-factly than she'd ever heard it before, and that made this short sentence all the more shocking. That explained everything, of course. She'd been pregnant, had known what a bad parent he'd be in the shape he was in after the discovery of the X-files, and therefore left him without telling him. And now she was back so her child could get to know his father - or her father? But why now of all times? And, more importantly... "How can he be sure it is indeed his child?" Obviously nobody had thought of that before, as Scully could easily read in the dumbfounded expressions that met her eyes when she looked up from her glass. "Mulder has always been far too trusting with anyone putting blame on him. What if she cheated on him? Or maybe she just adopted a child the right age." Scully trusted this woman to do anything as long as it served her purposes. "I want a paternity test done on this kid. And in Mulder's best interest, let's hope it's not his child." Mulder had requested reassignment, his request had been granted, and he tried to avoid her wherever possible. But Scully nonetheless managed to set up an opportunity where he couldn't escape her - unfortunately she had to rely on the help of Skinner's secretary Kim, but Kim had always been trustworthy, and now she saw a hope to shift her chances of winning a bet with her superior - by getting Mulder and Scully together, even if it was just for a talk. Kim called Mulder's office and ordered him up for a talk with Skinner - who had called in sick today and wouldn't be in before Monday. When Kim had put down the receiver, Scully smiled, "Thanks so much, Kim, I don't know what I'd do without you." Kim stood up and hugged her. "You can use any help you can get with him, Dana." Scully went back to her office - what a farce, now it was only her office, but still had only his nameplate. When the phone rang two minutes later, she returned to Kim's room, where Mulder was sitting by now, impatiently tapping his foot. She barely sat when Kim stood up and nodded to them, "Excuse me for a minute." Mulder bit his lip and ruefully stared at the opposite wall, at all expenses avoiding Scully's face. "I'm sorry, Dana, but I can't talk about it." She was merciless. "Of course you can. What the hell did this bitch do to you that you won't even talk to your partner of six years, much less look at me or work with me!" Her voice rose to high-pitched anger. "Damn it, Scully, it's no more her fault than yours!" He saw through her arrangement, and was also getting annoyed. "And either way it's none of your damn business!" "Cut the crap, Mulder, what tells you this girl is your daughter?" "Look at her, Scully, just take one fucking look! She looks so much like me it's almost ridiculous! For all I know she could be Sam's twin sister!" By now he was shouting at her, but when it dawned on him what he had just s aid, he suddenly fell silent. Scully felt this was her chance. "You realize what that means, Mulder? Samantha's twin sister. You know how many girls you saw in the last six years that could have been Sam's twin? Maybe you didn't count them, but I did. Three times you believed to have found your sister, and all three times it wasn't true. Mulder, we both know cloning humans is possible, so why not clone your sister? Even if she is your daughter, that doesn't mean it happened the natural way." Her voice became soft and soothing as she realized what this meant for Mulder. He desperately wanted this child to be his daughter, but not necessarily Diana Fowley's. "Oh, Scully, why do things like this always happen to us?" He sounded more than ever like a lost child himself, and she quickly pulled him into a fierce embrace. "You're gonna be okay, Mulder..." The next morning, Mulder brought his daughter Katie to work with him, and while for her it only meant fun, for him it was similar to breaking his wedding vows. In the middle of the morning, they went to meet Scully in the labs. Mulder introduced them, and Scully had to admit that the little girl indeed resembled Samantha, only her hair was more red than brown. "Hi Katie, I'm Dana, I used to work with your dad." "Hi Dana," Katie said, smiling brightly, and with no small shock, Scully felt reminded of her sister Melissa. The same red locks, and the same optimistic smile. "Katie, we need to make a little test, and we'll need a bit of your blood for that, and it is very important that you don't tell your mum about this." Scully spoke seriously, and Katie was impressed. "I don't like my mum. She's never been nice to me. She doesn't let me do anything. I'm glad we're living with daddy now." She smiled up at him, and Mulder smiled back, his eyes full of love. A few minutes later, when she was preparing Katie's blood for the tests, she whispered to him, "I never saw you as a father before, Mulder." He grinned ruefully, "Me neither, and I hardly do anything else than spoiling her." The PCR tests would take hours, and Mulder had other works to do, but Katie pleaded with him to let her stay at the lab. She found all the machines and tubes extremely fascinating. "Wait and see, Scully, she'll be a scientist after your heart." With that words Mulder disappeared for the day. While Katie rummaged around and made friends with the lab technicians and assistants, Scully worked on her DNA, and when the time had come to compare the results with the suspected parents, she called Mulder's office to bring him back to her side. He came running up immediately, but found Scully dumbstruck already, with Katie pulling at the sleeve of her lab coat, asking anxiously, "Dana? Dana? Daddy, Dana doesn't reply, why won't she reply?" He looked at her face, drained of all color, and instantly knew that the test had turned out very much different from their expectations. "Scully? What is it?" "Mulder, she is your daughter, but she's also... she's also mine!" She still couldn't believe it. "But... how the heck..." he felt as dumbstruck as she looked. In lack of any other thing, he turned to his daughter. "Katie, according to this test your mum is not your mum, but Dana is." Katie's eyes grew so large they seemed to consume her whole face, one more thing that hit Scully as a trait of Melissa's, but then she smiled. "I knew mum couldn't be my mum, she's always so mean! Will Dana move in with us, daddy?" In her childlike naivete, Katie had brought up the core of the problem - what about the marriage? "I'm gonna get a divorce. As soon as possible." "My god, Mulder, this means -" She was still dumbstruck. "This means no more and no less - Scully, Dana, will you marry me?" His eyes pleaded with her to say yes, and she had never been able to resist that look. "Of course I will!" She flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Mulder closed his eyes in delight, but than thought of his daughter, who was looking from one to the other with saucer-sized eyes. He picked her up with one arm, the other one around Scully, and said, smiling at his new little family, "Katie, Dana, I love you!" The End!!!