From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org Date: 21 May 2001 16:17:25 -0000 Subject: The Family Mulder, by J. LaVa (1/1), MSR, V, Post-Ep "Existence" by Jacquie LaVa Source: direct Reply To: [email unavailable] THE FAMILY MULDER By: Jacquie LaVa Category: MSR, vignette post-ep for "Existence" Rating: PG Disclaimers: As if, CC...! Spoilers: Season finale Dedication: to the Believers of IWTB, especially my partner, Tess... and to my Spooky Sisters, who also believe! Summary: Everything I need, I have... right now. This moment... "The Family Mulder" "Mulder..." "Mmmm..." "Mulder!" I reluctantly released her lips, feeling them curve into a smile against my own a tiny second before I let them go and looked down into her blushing face. Her blue eyes slanted downward, and I followed her gaze to behold the sleeping face of our son. Our son... my God, that felt good to say. I brushed a mouth still warm from his mother's kisses, across the brow of William, my son. Scully's son. Named after my father, and hers. Named for men we loved and still revered, although my memories of my father would never be as numerous as what Scully would always remember about her Ahab. And that was all right, I decided, as I snuggled my own William and watched him cram a tiny fist into his mouth as he slept in my arms. William Mulder The First had given me life - I would never think any other way. He gave me life and for that I would thank him every day of that life - because I could in turn give it to William the Second. Who was asleep in my arms... Scully silently pointed to his little crib, and I laid him down on his back amongst frolicking bears and tiny birds imprinted on the crib sheet. Overhead a musical mobile held more of the bears and birds, and Scully twisted the knob and wound it up. To the softly tinkling sounds of "It's a Small World", we stood shoulder to shoulder and watched our child sleep. I slipped an arm around the mother of my child and felt her lean her head against me as the tune played out in the otherwise quiet room. I looked down and met Scully's eyes, affecting a mock-pout. "Scully, you meanie... I wanted to hold him - and kiss you - longer." She smiled up at me and her forefinger tapped at my bottom lip teasingly. "I know. Somehow, I could tell... and I'll gladly grant you both desires, Mulder. But one at a time, okay? Right now, I want to be a little selfish - a bit greedy. It's been weeks and months of nothing but insecurities and close calls and so much loneliness... I almost lost him on the night he was born. I almost lost you. Maybe later I'll find a way to juggle you both, but for now..." Scully's voice faded off into a whisper as she stretched up on her tiptoes and wound her arms around my neck, and I snapped out of my daze long enough to wrap my arms around her waist and haul her up closer, right off her feet and out of her little slippers. Her mouth met mine and this time there wasn't a speck of hesitancy in either of us. Kissing her again, after so long... Jesus, so sweet. I had forgotten many things from before my abduction but this I remembered quite well. This I had carried deep in my heart when the pain was at its worst; when my body could barely stand one more inflicted agony upon it... I remembered her soft, full lips and the way her tongue curled itself into mine, much the way her body was now doing. There was a lot less of Dana Scully these days, but every precious inch was pressed against me and I wanted to drop to my knees in thanks. The armful I now held was rather in the way of genuflection, though... so I put it off for the moment. But later on tonight I would fulfill that promise to God, I swore it... I would get down on my knees and thank Him. We kissed and clung together, standing there in the soft daylight next to the crib of William the Youngest Mulder - and in the quiet of this room an occasional infant-snuffle from our son indicated a baby sound asleep and hopefully dreaming sweet baby-dreams. I cradled his mommy's head against my shoulder as we both smiled at the noises he made. Something I thought I'd never hear, not in my lifetime... the sound of my sleeping child. Another reason to thank God - I would have to make a list so I wouldn't forget any of them. "Mulder?" Her low voice was an inquiring vibration against my shoulder, and I turned my head and focused my suddenly-damp eyes on her lovely face. Motherhood agreed with my Scully... "My Scully..." I had spoken the words aloud. A slim auburn eyebrow quirked, and I chuckled aloud at the sight, one I had been missing of late. I grinned and she responded with one of her own, before speaking again. "Are we going to do this? Are we ready? Can we protect him, Mulder? I am trying so hard not to worry, but God," her eyes were now damp as well, "He's so tiny and helpless... and I can't believe this is the end of it, as much as I would like it to be. We can't be that naive, Mulder. It's not the end, is it?" Worried blue eyes sought mine for reassurance, and I caught her close to me and pressed that reassurance into her neck. "Yes. We are going to do this. We are ready and we are going to protect him and love him and watch him grow up into a splendid young man, Scully. And I don't want to have to worry unduly but after the last few months I think we do need to be careful, and we will be. Think of the network of people willing to help us... they have always been there and they will continue to be there, for us and for William. He has a lot of instant godfathers, already - he's a lucky little boy. He's got the best mommy in the world," I squeezed her tightly, forcing a breathless little squeal from her constricted lungs, "and I promise to be the best daddy I can be. What more do we need?" Scully nodded and took as deep a breath as I would allow her in the closeness of my embrace. I added tenderly, "I will hold the both of you as close as this, to me. They will have to go through me to get to you, and to our baby. We'll find a way to live and we'll live each day to the fullest, one by one - and we'll watch the days fly by and wonder where they have gone when our son stands tall and proud before us and tells us... that he wants to be a plumber when he grows up." Her snort of disbelief was a delightful sound in my ear. "A plumber, Mulder? You would aspire for our child to rotor-route plugged toilets for a living?" I shook my head and kissed her little nose. "I would aspire for our son to live a safe life. A normal, safe life. Plumbers are pretty normal, Scully - pretty safe." Scully nodded in understanding, leaning back in my arms and regarding me with glittering eyes. "Mmm, yeah... old man Higgins was pretty normal, too - he was the plumber on our block when I was just a little kid. But what that geezer could do to a backed-up septic system... oh, Lordy." She leaned back in and giggled into my chest and I rumbled out another chuckle, thinking how wonderful it was to simply stand in her arms, and laugh. I guess I needed to change my son's future profession... "Okay, maybe not a plumber. Maybe something else. But the point I was so eloquently trying to make, before you began poking holes in my theory... is that William WILL grow. He will become somebody as special as he is right now, this minute. He'll grow up to be his mother's son." I bent down into Scully's face and saw her eyes flutter shut as I kissed her again, deeply this time, probing those full lips of hers and tasting my future on her tongue. It tasted so, so sweet... In an hour or so our child would awaken and I would sit next to Scully and hold her in my arms as she nursed him. I would see yet another miracle, that of a mother nourishing her young. Old as time and as simple an act as could be, yet vital to the continuance of human life - I would bear witness to this act of nurturing and I would never forget it. I would count it as Act One of a continuing lifelong saga, the beginning of one great adventure and the end of an eight-year quest to find my family... my true family. I had found them and they were everything I had ever wanted and probably more than I deserved. I'd hold them in my arms and I would never, never let them go... My Scully - and our William. "Scully..." "Mmmm..." "You up for a little juggling?" "Oh, yeah..." End