About a Boy
by Christine Leigh

Summary: Season eight.  Missing scene from "Three
Words."  Continuation of the conversation in Mulder's
apartment after he first comes home.
Rating: PG
Category: V
Keywords: MSR
Spoilers: "Requiem" through "Three Words."
Disclaimer: All characters are the products of Chris
Carter. They also belong to Ten-Thirteen Productions and
the Fox Network. No copyright infringement intended.  Two
lines of dialogue are verbatim from "Three Words."
Email: Feedback is always welcome, leighchristine@hotmail.com


"Mulder..."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be cold or ungrateful. I just... I
have no idea where I fit in. Right now. I just, uh... I'm having
a little trouble processing everything."

Then a silence descends.  It is not one of their patented ones
where communication continues even though their voices
are still.  This is different.  He can't remember the last time
that neither knew what to say to the other, and the
strangeness is throwing him to a place he doesn't want to be.
He has experienced enough strangeness to last five lifetimes,
and he craves the familiar.  That craving suddenly takes a
desperate turn, and he moves from his perch on the desk to
sit on the couch.

"Mulder, I don't want to give you the wrong impression."

He motions to her to come sit and watches as she lowers
herself as gracefully as a nearly eight-months pregnant
woman can.

"Are you doing all right, Scully?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"What about..."

"That's what I meant--we're fine."

He takes a deep breath.  Everything she has been to him she
is still.  That, Mulder doesn't question.  "Good.  I didn't
mean to interrupt before."  He can see that she is mulling
over whether to continue.  He isn't sure he is ready to hear
this, but uncertainty is worse.  "Scully, whatever you were
going to say, please, as long as you want to say it, don't hold
back.  I'm listening."  She nods, and then before speaking
moves so that they are almost next to each other.  Then she
takes his hand in hers.

"Mulder, the day I learned I was pregnant I cried harder than
I ever before have in my life.  First,  for joy, and then in
despair.  This was in the space of about two hours."  She
pauses and closes her eyes for a second or two.  No good,
Skinner is still there; Mulder is not.  It's a waking nightmare
that won't go away, even now that Mulder *is* here.  She
looks at him, and resumes.  "Do you remember the dizzy
spells I had in Bellefleur?"

"Yes."  His voice was faint.

"After you left with Skinner to go back, I had another one.  It
was much more severe than the others, and I was admitted to
the hospital for tests.  They ran a battery, but in the end the
only thing wrong with me was that I was pregnant."

Mulder looks up from their hands and meets her gaze.

"I don't know..."

"What to say?"  Scully nearly laughs.  However hysterical, it
feels good.

"How, Scully?"

"How, Mulder?"  She smiles.  Another time and another
place, and the innuendo would have been difficult to keep
pace with.  Robbed of a so-called normal life, she has vowed
not to let anything more be taken from her, and smiling is
the first step toward achieving that promise.  Still, her voice
cracks a little when she speaks.  "Well, a man once told me
that even educated M.D.s do it."

He is dazed and confused.  Nothing new there.  Them.  A
baby.  New, definitely.  This baby is theirs.  How?  No, he
mustn't utter that word again, at least not at the moment.
Scully conceived a child naturally.  With him.  Happy?  Yes,
he is.  He thinks.  Is she?  They'd never talked about it
before.  There was no need; it wasn't part of their realm.
They are both alive and together, and she is carrying his
child.  An hour ago he was a stranger, but now for the first
time since awakening he feels as though he has really
returned.  To life, and to them.  The new them, that would
be--a three-them instead of a two.  Without thinking about
it, Mulder removes the hand Scully has been holding and raises
it to cup her cheek.  So soft and warm.  So home.  Yes, this is
home.  For once life is biting him in the ass with good news.

"Us?"

"Yes, Mulder, us.  I don't know why and neither do my
doctors, but I want to believe that it's meant to be."

"I guess it must be."

"Mulder, I know this is a lot for you to take in.  Are you all
right?

"Yes.  I'm just...just, I guess amazed might be a good word."

"It is."  Now she can feel the tears coming, but they are of
joy.

"Come here, Scully."  He holds his arms out, and she goes
straight into them, and to the embrace she had thought never
to know again.  They hold each other, gently rocking for a
few minutes.  There is so much to be said, but that will come
later.  Now they are having a reunion--a reunion of the
tangible.  In experiencing the touch of each other again, the
simple fact that their hearts had never been apart is
underscored.  They pull away from each other only enough
to do what they have not yet, and as their lips meet for the
first time since they'd said good-bye before he'd left that
night so long ago, promises fill the silence around them.
There is one more thing, however, that occurs to Mulder
and he is almost shy about it, but cannot stop himself from
asking.

"Scully, do you know, uh, that is assuming you want to
know, maybe you don't...but if you do, do you know?"

"We're having a boy, Mulder."

He ducks his head, rather like a boy himself, and then raises
it and smiles wide.

"A boy."


- end  -