Evergreen
by Mack the Spoon

Classification: SR
Keywords: MSR
Spoilers: pre-IWTB
Rating: PG
Feedback: glace_aux_fraises@hotmail.com 
Summary: Decorations, surprises, and family.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, the show, or the
movie.

Author's Note: This takes place before the second movie and is
somewhat of a sequel to my other pre-IWTB stories "The Things
That Are Given" and "Who You Were". You don't need to have read
them to understand this one, although it might help.
Many, many thanks to Dasha for her comments and edits!
Also, I am indebted to Innisfree for some plot ideas for this
story.


~~~~~~

"So, Scully, what do you think?" he asked, grinning, eyes
sparkling.

She walked around the tree carefully. "Mulder, it's beautiful."
The six-foot Fraser fir was, indeed, lovely: symmetrical, but not
so much that it didn't look real, and it seemed healthy. "I can't
even believe it's possible to order a Christmas tree online, much
less that it arrived looking so good!"

His grin had not faded. "You can get everything online nowadays.
This was 100% money-back guaranteed, too - not that we'll need
it." Indeed, hardly any needles had even fallen off the tree
since Mulder had moved it to the back porch. "And it came with
the stand, did I tell you that?"

"Yes, you did," Scully said, smiling back at him. Only Mulder
would have even thought of something like this. "Thank you,
Mulder. I really didn't know when we would find the time to get
one this year."

Mulder nodded, and came over to put an arm around her shoulders.
"You've been so busy, and  I've just been sitting around in my
office. It seemed the least I could do."

She turned her head to kiss his cheek. It had a day or so's
growth of stubble, and she wondered briefly if he had simply
forgotten to shave, or if he really wanted a beard. "Thanks,
Mulder. It means a lot."

He squeezed her shoulders in understanding. "Let's get this thing
inside. I ordered some lights, too - let me see where I put
them."

"Lights, too?" Scully's mouth almost fell open again. She really
hadn't had time to think much about decorations, with residency
at the hospital taking up almost all of her time. She had bought
a box of simple glass balls at the store during one trip for
groceries, but had hoped rather than expected to have somewhere
to actually hang them that year.

She held open the door for him, and helped guide in the tree and
Mulder. With a grunt, he carefully set it down in an empty corner
of the room. "That good for now?"

"Sure. Mulder, what kind of lights did you get?"

"Um, you know, just..." he trailed off, and went over to the
closet and dug around in the back.

And I never noticed him hiding them anywhere, Scully thought. She
had been pretty exhausted each day after work, but she hoped she
hadn't been too unobservant where Mulder was concerned. He had
been nothing but understanding, though, throughout this whole
experience. It warmed her heart again to think of him planning
this surprise.

"Ah ha!" His cry of triumph brought her out of her reverie. He
held out a box. "I couldn't check them out at a store, obviously,
but I opened them when the box came and they do seem to all
work."

She took it from him. One eyebrow raised as she looked. Where
Scully would have gone with a simple, classy white string of
bulbs, these appeared to have every color imaginable, as bright
as possible. They would probably clash horribly with her golden
and blue ornaments.

"Well?" Mulder sounded unsure, seeing her face.

She looked up at him and couldn't help hiding a smile. Bless his
heart, decoration was definitely not his forte and yet he had
done his best. "Well. The colors are... creative, I must say."

"You don't like them? I think I have a receipt, we could probably
return them - but it's getting close to the day itself, I don't
know about shipping time..."

She relented and let him see the smile. "Mulder, they're okay,
really. I'll think of you every time we use them."

His mouth quirked, and then he got a bit of a guilty look. "If
you think those are - creative, Scully, wait 'til you see the
next part."

The eyebrow rose again. The next part? "Mulder..."

He stuck his head back into the storage closet and dug around
again. "You wouldn't believe the deal I got on these."

She took the box. It was more Christmas bulb ornaments... only
these were patterned with aliens, UFOs, stars, and galaxies. "Oh,
Mulder..." she groaned, "you really bought these? Paid good money
for them?"

He gave her another grin, eyes pleading. "I couldn't resist.
Besides, I think the blue background is the same as the ones you
got, isn't it? So they'll match!"

She found her box, and made a show of comparing. It was almost
true. She sighed, and rolled her eyes heavenward. "It's a good
thing we don't have any neighbors, and we won't be having guests
over, that's all I'll say." But she walked over to him and gave
him a hug. "Mulder, it does mean a lot to be able to celebrate a
real Christmas with you. Even with tacky ornaments."

She could feel him smile into the top of her head. "They're not
tacky, they're unique."

"Mmhmm. Whatever," she said.

He pulled back from her a little and moved a lock of her hair
behind her ear. "I think it's about time we got to celebrate a
Christmas like this: really together, in our own home, and with
no ghosts or aliens or anything else bothering us."

"Even though I have to work Christmas night?" Scully asked,
looking up at him. "And be on call that day?"

"Even so."

She rose to her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. "Then let's
make good use of this time before I go back to work in the
morning."

"I like the way you think, Scully," Mulder said, kissing her
back.

She pulled away after a moment, laughing. "I meant I want to
decorate the tree, Mulder!" At his mock crestfallen look, she
chuckled again. "We'll have time for other things afterward.
First, I want to make sure that if we're really using these
lights and these ornaments, they're at least put up nicely."

"Fine," Mulder said, pretending reluctance. "I'll do my manly
duty of reaching the top."

~~~~~~~
It was about a week later that Scully answered her phone only to
realize it was her mother. "Oh, hi, Mom. Yeah, I'm fine. Work is
still good. Tiring, of course."

"Good, honey. I wanted to ask you something," her mother said.

"What is it?" she said. Mulder was in the other room cleaning up
their dishes from dinner, but she knew he was listening.

"I had planned to surprise you, but something told me that you
might not like this type of thing to be a complete surprise,
after... everything. It's just that after your visit this year, I
couldn't stop thinking about it."

"Mom, what do you mean?" Scully honestly had no idea what she was
getting at.

"I want to come visit you. Bill is on duty right now, so he
wouldn't be able to come, but Tara is interested, too."

Scully couldn't speak for a second. Her mind whirled. Of course
it would be wonderful to see them... but Mulder was still
supposed to be in hiding - and how could it possibly work if Tara
wanted to bring the kids?

As if hearing the thought, her mother continued,"Tara said she
would probably leave the kids at her parents' place. Their other
grandparents really want to see them." When there was still no
response, she went on. "I'm sorry, I just sprung this on you, but
I wanted to ask, and I didn't want to actually show up without
telling you."

"Uh, yeah. Can I..." Scully stopped. There was no real reason not
to give a response right away, as far as everyone else knew - but
then her mother probably already knew about Mulder, anyway. "Can
I think about it and call you back by tomorrow?"

"Sure, Dana. I know you have - other things to consider, too."

"Mom-" her daughter started to say, warningly.

"I know," Mrs. Scully said quickly. She carefully changed the
subject. "So, how are your Christmas preparations going, honey?"

She sighed. "Um, not bad, actually. I had thought we- I wouldn't
have time to do much, but things fell into place better than I
expected." She looked at Mulder, who was back in the room with
her, and smiled.

"That's great! I'm glad you'll be able to celebrate a little. And
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, whether or not we come
visit. Do you think you'll be able to go to midnight Mass?"

"Maybe. There is a church nearby that I have been going to." That
was probably an overstatement. She had been too busy to feel like
regularly attending a church service, although she did make use
of the chapel at the hospital from time to time.

"I'm glad, Dana. Well, I'll let you go for now. Please don't feel
pressured into doing this if it's too stressful to you. And you
can also give us a strict timeline of when might be most
convenient for you, if it's convenient at all. But we'd love to
come see you."

"Okay, Mom. I'll get back to you tomorrow night. Thanks for
calling. I love you. Give my love to everyone."

"I will, sweetie. I love you, too. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." She hung up. Mulder had sat back down at the table
and was looking at her curiously. "That was Mom," she started
unnecessarily. "She... she wants to come here for Christmas, and
Tara, too."

Mulder's eyes widened slightly. Then he took a deep breath and
let it out. "Hmm. Well, I would say, it's a good thing we've
decorated."

She shook her head a little. "Mulder... it's not safe, to have
people know where you are..."  But she sounded unsure. It was her
family, after all.

He nodded slightly. "I won't say I feel completely safe about it.
But I can't hide away from absolutely everyone except you,
forever. And we still haven't seen any recent signs that anyone
is actively chasing me."

She sighed. "That's true. And I know it would be good, to show my
mom I really do trust her... *we* really trust her." She met his
eyes. "She said she would understand if I was only free for a few
days, too."

"I think my vote, Scully, is that it would be nice to have some
good company for Christmas." He smiled. "Don't get me wrong, I
love seeing you every day. But maybe I should be socialized
more."

She quirked a small smile in return. "My lucky family, getting to
see you at your most hermit-like." She squeezed his hand. "I
think I can make sure Mom and Tara know how important it is for
no one else to know you're here. I'd be worried about the kids if
they were supposed to come, but they aren't."

He squeezed back. "We can both think about it a little more,
since you said you'd call back tomorrow. If it would help, I can
email or call Skinner and see what he thinks about the risk."

"That sounds good, Mulder." She let him help her to her feet.

~~~~~~~
Scully pulled the gate closed behind her, and hurried back into
her car to escape the falling snow. She hoped that Mulder had
remembered to tidy the house a little before her mother and Tara
got here. They were supposed to come by rental car in about a
half hour, and Scully hoped to be able to relax and make herself
look slightly more presentable before then. It was the day before
Christmas Eve, she had two whole days off and part of Christmas,
and she wanted them all to enjoy themselves.

As she got out of the car and locked it, Scully saw with pleasure
that the tree, visible through the window, looked cheery and
welcoming despite its... unusual ornamentation. She thought her
mother would call it 'sweet', and had no idea what Tara would
think. Shaking her head a little, she went inside and locked the
door behind her. "Mulder?" she called as she scuffed the snow off
her boots.

There was some rustling and then he appeared from his office.
"Hey, Doc. How was work?"

"Fine, but Mulder - did you do any cleaning today?" She glanced
pointedly around the living room, that was still less than neat.
In fact, she could hardly distinguish a change.

"Oh, well, I cleaned the downstairs bathroom, but then I got a
little distracted," he admitted. "I'm sorry, I'll get on it. You
go upstairs and get changed, whatever you need to do, and don't
worry about it."

She sighed, irritated and exhausted. "You'd better not get
distracted again, by anything less than some sort of emergency or
my family arriving."

He caught her as she walked by and kissed her. "I don't know,
you're rather distracting yourself, Doctor Scully."

She returned the kiss tiredly, but with affection. "That may be.
When I get downstairs again, this room better be respectably
clean." She hung up her coat and went upstairs, considering a
quick shower. She thought she wouldn't bother washing her hair,
since the house was drafty enough that it wouldn't dry very
quickly. But hot water on her sore and tired body would feel
good.

She had just finished drying off when she heard her phone
ringing. Throwing on her robe, she rushed out of the bathroom to
get it. "Hello?"

"Dana, it's Mom. I wanted to let you know that we should probably
be there in ten minutes. Things were a little delayed."

"Okay, that's fine. Um, I hope you two don't mind lasagna."

"We're fine with that, right, Tara?" There was the sound of
someone else speaking. "It sounds good. See you soon, honey."

"All right, see you soon." She hung up, found some clothing and
yelled the ETA down to Mulder.

When she was finally ready, she felt mildly more relaxed,
although she hadn't been able to rid herself of a little
remaining fear over what it would mean for Mulder's location to
be known by anyone else. She gave herself a mental shake as she
went back downstairs. This was going to be a joyful occasion, she
reminded herself.

Mulder came out of the kitchen. "I put the lasagna in. Does the
living room pass inspection?"

"Yes, much better, thank you, Mulder." She could wish he had
vacuumed, but it would do. "I guess they'll be here soon. Shall
we go out to meet them at the gate together?"

"You're gonna let me out of the house?" he teased.

She looked speculative. "Just this once, for good behavior." Of
course he did leave the house frequently, but they were both a
bit wary of giving opportunities for him to be seen by anyone who
might be looking, so the trips were usually quite short in
distance.

Maggie called again a minute or two later, letting them know that
she was at the gate. "I'll be right out," Scully said, glancing
at Mulder. Once more dressed for the snow, they set out. When
they arrived, they saw the rental car, its doors opening.

"Fox! Is that you?" Mrs. Scully called as she walked quickly to
the gate.

He pushed it open. "Hi, Mrs. Scully," he said, accepting her hug
with a smile.

"Oh, I thought you would be here! Dana tried to hide it, but I
could tell."

"Oh, my God! You're really here!" Tara said, coming up beside
them.  "I hoped- I knew she wouldn't leave you alone."

"I could never convince her to," he said lightly.

Scully embraced them both. "You know I wanted to tell you, but we
decided in person was safest."

"Well, let's not stand outside in the cold," Mulder said. "Come
in! We'll get the gate behind you, but go on inside."

When they had all entered and were sufficiently free of snow,
Mrs. Scully was the first to comment on the decor. "That's a
lovely tree, Dana."

She smiled as they sat down in the living room. "Most of the
ornaments were Mulder's idea. He actually picked out the tree,
too."

"I've always liked Frasers," said Maggie approvingly.

Tara spoke up after a brief pause. "So have you both been here
this whole time?"

"Yeah," said Scully. "I guess it's getting close to a year now."

"The house may not be much, but it's home," Mulder added, putting
an arm over her shoulders again.

"Have you been in any danger?" asked Mrs. Scully concernedly.

They exchanged glances. "Not that we know of," Scully said.
"Skinner - you remember our former boss, Walter Skinner, Tara?"
At her sister-in-law's nod, she continued, "Skinner helped us
choose this place: it's out of the way, but we thought the
relative closeness to D.C. would make it somewhere they wouldn't
think to look. But there really hasn't been much sign that
they're looking." She did not draw any comparisons to their year
on the run, and the several close calls they had experienced. It
was probably better if her family didn't have to think about
that. Mulder, perhaps sensing her slight shiver, gave her
shoulders a squeeze.

"I know Dana's busy with residency, but what about you, Fox? It
must be hard. I bet you have to stay close to the house." Mrs.
Scully seemed to be making a conscious effort to reach out to
him.

He paused. He and Scully had not discussed what to say about his
activities, exactly. "I mostly do research and investigation from
home."

"What kinds of investigation?" Tara asked.

"Usually along the same lines as the X-files, actually," Mulder
said, a little uncomfortable. He didn't know Tara's feelings
about the subject, but he was uneasily reminded of what Bill's
had been.

But she smiled. "That's good, that you can keep doing what you
love."

Scully smiled in return, but she thought, Sort of. He sort of
can, and that is good. I can't believe it will be enough forever,
though. Out loud, she suggested dinner, and they moved to the
dining area.

It was after they had finished, and Mulder had offered to make
coffee, that a cell phone rang and Mrs. Scully excused herself to
answer it. A little of Scully's worry came back as she watched
her mother leave the room - surely she wouldn't give anything
away to whoever was calling? No, she reminded herself yet again,
this was her mother she was talking about. She was both
intelligent and protective of those she loved. And Mulder was
included in that group, though Mrs. Scully did not completely
understand him or her daughter's enduring attachment to him.
Still, when the woman came back a minute or so later, Scully
asked as casually as she could, "Who was that?"

"Just a friend from church," her mother replied. "She wanted to
invite me to a Christmas party, actually."

Scully nodded, but felt oddly like there was something her mother
wasn't saying. She decided she would do her best to forget about
it for the time being, though. Tara and Maggie had some amusing
stories to catch them up on, and Scully soon found herself
relaxing, leaning into Mulder on the couch and sharing plenty of
laughs.

Suddenly, the noise of a car honking outside startled them.
Scully sat up straight, eyes widening. "Who would that be?" she
asked, sparing a wish that their guns were not upstairs.

"Well, probably no one dangerous, or why would they have
announced their presence?" Mulder pointed out, standing. "Let's
go see."

"Mulder-" she started, then remembered that her family was still
in the room. "Are you sure you should come?"

He sighed, and a look of annoyance passed over his face before it
settled into a calm expression. "Are you honestly worried,
Scully?"

"Dana..." her mother broke in hesitatingly. "I'm sure it's
nothing to be worried about."

The car honked again, and Scully tried not to flinch. "Fine," she
said, and hoped it had not come out as snappy as it sounded to
her ears. "If we're all coming, then?" Without waiting for an
answer, she went upstairs for her gun. She carried it downstairs
unobtrusively to avoid further comments, although she knew Mulder
knew what she was doing. Then she grabbed her coat, noting that
the others had theirs. There was an uncomfortable silence as they
all left the house. Mulder allowed Scully to lead, although he
was right behind her. Her hand remained on the gun, just in case.

A man stood at the gate, back-lit in the headlights of his car
that was still running. "Anyone home?" he called out as they
approached. It was too dark to be able to make him out, but
Scully thought she recognized his voice.

She quickened her pace, and neither she nor Mulder saw Maggie
exchange a small smile with Tara. Could it be? "Is that really
you?" Scully called in a voice that quavered.

"Scully?" Mulder said quietly, voice cautious and a little
confused.

She blinked back the tears that were threatening. "Turn so I can
see you," she said as they reached the gate.

As he did so, a smile visible on his face, she gasped. "Charlie!
Mulder, help me open the gate, it's Charlie!"

Mulder joined her quickly, and they opened it. Scully flung her
arms around him as soon as there was space, and then pulled back.
"It's really you?"

"It's really me," he said, grinning. "And this is really Fox
Mulder? I've heard so much about him..." He turned to him and
extended a hand.

Mulder clasped it firmly. "*You've* heard about me?" he said. "I
was beginning to think you didn't really exist."

Charlie Scully laughed. "I do travel an awful lot. But I'm
guessing you technically don't exist here?" He looked at Scully.
"Mom seemed to be secretive about something when we talked, but
she wouldn't say what it was."

Scully wrapped an arm around Mulder's waist. "Yeah, the
government's still afraid of him, apparently." She turned around
to stare accusingly at her mother. "So this was your church
friend?"

Her mother smiled unapologetically, and took her turn embracing
her son. "Well, everyone gets a surprise this Christmas."

Scully laughed, wiping a few rebellious tears from her face.
"Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome. You know, this whole idea started when Charlie
told me he had a forty-eight-hour leave in this area at around
this time, and then Tara suggested we try to come out here and
get as many Scullys together as possible."

"Wow," Scully said. "Thank you, Tara."

"Oh, you're so welcome," she said. "I'm sorry we worried you,
though. I didn't think about that."

"It's fine, Tara, really." Scully smiled.

"Oh, is that what took so long?" Charlie said. "I was wondering."

"Before this conversation continues," Scully said, hoping to
change the subject and head off any brotherly reminiscing about
how she didn't like surprises, "let's go back inside. I know we
have two California residents here, who probably aren't used to
standing out in the cold."

"Thank you," said Tara, who was indeed starting to shiver.

They were inside quickly, and nearly everyone took Mulder up on
his offer of more coffee. This time, it was Tara who excused
herself for a few minutes, to call her parents' house to say
goodnight to her kids before it got too late in that time zone.
"This is their first 'sleepover' without me or Bill, so I think
they'd better hear my voice," she explained. Then she suddenly
looked a little guilty, gave Scully a sad glance, and added,
"I'll be right back," before quickly heading into the guest room.

Scully thought both her mother and brother had caught that, and
tried to ignore the pain that Tara had guessed correctly about.
Mulder broke the silence. "Oh, hey, Scully, what are we going to
do about beds? We only have the one guest bedroom, and it's
already got your mother and Tara in it."

Thanking him mentally for the change of topic, Scully said, "Oh,
that's right. Charlie, I'm sorry, but you may have to take the
couch. It's comfortable, though, I promise, and we have lots of
blankets."

"That's fine, Dana. It looks like it was bought with someone
Mulder's size in mind, not yours, which is good or else I don't
think I'd really fit." He smirked.

Scully rolled her eyes. "He did buy it, if you must know."

"So, Mulder, do you guys have any idea when this whole fugitive
thing might be over for you?" Charlie asked, leaning back in his
chair.

Mulder almost raised an eyebrow at Scully. "'This whole fugitive
thing'?"

Scully shrugged slightly. "Don't look at me, he's always talked
about everything that casually. I don't know how he functions in
the Navy, with an attitude like that." Mrs. Scully agreed with a
fond smile.

Charlie shrugged expressively, then pressed on. "But, do you know
at all?"

"Uh, not really. We hope any dangerous part is pretty much wound
down," Mulder said. "Of course we're still being careful."

"So, it's just a waiting game from now on, no news is good news,"
Charlie said, nodding. He sighed, and took a sip of coffee. "That
must be a hell of a thing for you both." He winced and looked at
his mother, but she didn't seem to have reacted to his language.

"It's better than the alternative," said Mulder quietly. "And at
least they dropped the charges against Scully." He took her hand.

Charlie smiled briefly, perhaps at hearing his sister called by
her last name, and nodded again. "You guys have the craziest life
ever, did anyone ever tell you that?"

Scully chuckled, somewhat ruefully. "I don't know that anyone's
ever said it, but I'm inclined to agree." And of course, he only
had the barest idea. Tara came back in at that moment, and Scully
asked her directly how everyone was, hoping to convey that she
was not offended and didn't need her to censor herself about her
kids.

"They're doing well. They love their grandparents' house. I think
Mattie's just excited because Grandma and Grandpa let him watch
more TV than his dad does." She shook her head, smiling. "And my
mom said he keeps asking if he can open his presents yet. Sarah
probably would if she were old enough."

"Ah, the true meaning of Christmas," Mulder said, and everyone
laughed.

As Scully looked around the room and saw the faces of those she
loved, even though there were some missing (and some that would
always be missing), she found herself thinking privately that
this, right then, was very close to it.

~~~~~~~
Author's Note, 2: You really can order live Christmas trees
online, and some of the sites have gotten good customer reviews.
It seemed like a Mulder thing to do, especially right at this
moment when he was unable to go out much to shop, and I was
pleased to Google it and see that I didn't have to make up the
idea.

Merry Christmas!