Take No Chances by Tess Rating: PG Timeline: Inspired by the picture that is making the rounds Disclaimer: Fox's, 1013's. Not mine. Archiving: Yes, but I'd like to know where so I can visit. Summary: There was nothing which could entice her to risk their lives together. Email: tnv099@aol.com Note: Thanks to my friends for their recent impersonation as a group of cheerleaders. It's been a long time since I've written anything and your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated. She stopped by the supermarket to pick up a few things for dinner then made the short drive from the market to their house. As she pulled into the driveway, she noted that Mulder was already home. She gave an appreciative glance at the small stone house with its neatly painted shutters. They had spent the first couple of years after they ran from D.C., hiding in various motels and run-down rentals before finally deciding that they were, perhaps, safest and less conspicuous if they just lived what appeared to be a normal life in a normal neighborhood. Even if said normal life was lived under an alias. She grabbed her purse and slid out of the car. She shivered as a cold breeze swirled around her and sent a wistful glance at the tender shoots of daffodils just beginning to poke their way through the tidy flower beds. Though the budding greenery whispered of spring, the bare tree limbs swaying in the chilly wind were proof that winter had not entirely released its frigid grip. She climbed the short flight of steps to the porch and stepped into the foyer of the house. "I'm home," she called out as she bumped the door closed with her hip. At her entrance, Mulder rose from the sofa. "I've only got one bag." She waved him back toward the sofa but he continued down the short hallway toward her. She shifted her purse and the grocery bag into one hand and idly flipped through the small stack of mail piled on a table in the foyer. "Scully," he murmured and in that one word she recognized trouble. She looked up cautiously and met his sad gaze. "I have bad news..." Her purse and the grocery bag fell from suddenly nerveless fingers and thudded onto the hardwood. "Mulder... what? William? Has something happened to him?" Her voice was panicked. "No. Scully, it's your mother. She's..." Her shoulders sagged as relief over William's continued safety warred with sudden grief. "She's dead?" His hands reached for hers and he stepped close. "I'm so sorry." Scully spun on her heel and yanked the door open again. She stumbled down the steps and Mulder followed her outside. He reached out with one hand and grabbed her by the back of the coat, stopping her in her tracks. "Scully... wait." She dropped her head forward as he turned her toward him. She took several shallow breaths and studied the tips of his boots with tear-blurred eyes. "When? How?" "A couple of days ago. Skinner got a message through to me. He only just found out today. She had been in the hospital... some kind of virus or infection, I guess." She nodded and continued to stare towards the ground. Her long hair fell forward, hiding her face from him. He lifted one hand and pushed a heavy lock behind her ear. "The funeral is the day after tomorrow," he whispered. Another gust of wind kicked up around them and he shivered as the cold bit through his t-shirt. "You should go back inside," she said dully. "It's cold out here and you're not dressed for it." "Come inside with me," he pleaded. She shook her head. "No," she said in a tight voice. "I don't want to go in yet." She liked the cold. It gave her an excuse for the numbness stealing through her body. "I think you should go," he told her. Scully looked up in confusion. "Go...?" "To the funeral," he clarified. "I can't, Mulder. How? There's no..." She shook her head in automatic denial. "I can't," she repeated. "Scully... your mother's funeral... surely we can find a way." He pulled her even closer and she nestled her head against his chest. They stayed like that for a while. She inhaled deeply, drawing his scent deep into her lungs, taking comfort from the familiarity of his strong arms wrapped around her and the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek. She worked hard to control her breathing, to keep the tears at bay, but they betrayed her anyway, soaking into the soft, blue cotton of his shirt. After a little time had passed, he began to speak again, his voice a soft rumble above her head. "I thought about it while I waited for you to get home," he began. "I don't see any way that we could both go without arousing attention, but you might be able to slip in unnoticed... you'd have to disguise yourself somehow, but I think it could be done." She shook her head. "What's the point? I wouldn't even be able to talk to Bill or Charlie and I couldn't see her and not... and not..." Her voice broke and she shuddered. "The point?" He sighed. "She's your mother. I want you to have the chance to say goodbye." Her muscles tightened at the thought of that goodbye and he rubbed soothing hands over her back. She relaxed back into his chest. She tried to pick her way through a minefield of the logistics necessary to accomplish what he was proposing but grief and shock were making her thoughts sluggish. Could she have done something if she had been there... had her mother been asking for her? Had she wondered why she didn't come? She took a deep breath and sniffed back her tears, forcing herself to think clearly. She fell back into logic and reason and orderly thought by force of long habit and found strange comfort there. She wanted - desperately - to be there. She needed - badly - to see her mother one last time. To touch her hand, stroke her hair. Press a final kiss against that beloved face. To take comfort from the rituals of the funeral Mass and murmur prayers over her mother's grave. To see her brothers and find ease in their embraces. To reminisce with the only two people left who knew Margaret Scully as mother and to spend time with the only two people left who knew her as 'Dana'. She believed it her duty, as Margaret Scully's only surviving daughter, to bear witness as she was laid to rest. But that was her heart speaking. Logically, she knew. She knew that their enemies had not stopped looking for them. And she knew that they would be searching for her, expecting her to try to slip into the funeral unnoticed. Knew that her grief would be too apparent to anyone looking and that no disguise could hide her. She knew, too, that if she were apprehended... When she did not immediately return, she knew nothing would keep Mulder from following her. Scully had sacrificed many things in her life. Her career, her home, her family and, at times, her health. She had even sacrificed her chance to mother the only child she would ever bear. William... gone from her arms, likely forever. He was her continued sacrifice and not a day went by that she didn't grieve the loss of her son from her life, but still she carried on. The one thing Dana Scully knew she could not sacrifice was her life with Mulder. She wasn't sure what it said about her both as a mother and a woman... that she could go on without her precious son, but could not bear the thought of not having this man in her life. She reminded herself that William had been given up with a strength borne from a mother's passionate belief that it was the only way to protect her child - to protect Mulder's child - from harm and that she would do anything to keep him safe. Even if it meant that she could never see him again. But the woman... the woman needed Mulder. She had lost him once, buried him, and believed him gone from her forever and had it not been for the child nestled under her heart, she knew that she would have given up. She knew herself to be too selfish to imagine her world without him. Didn't think that she could let him go even if it was for his own good. Once perhaps, she could have, but no longer. It simply was no longer enough to know that Mulder existed in the world. She needed to see him. She needed to wake up next to him. To share conversation with him from across the dinner table. To laugh with him and cry with him. To share the mundane as well as the extraordinary. To cradle him in her arms and take him into her body. The end they were fighting against loomed frighteningly large in the near future and if they should fail, they would take comfort in each other's nearness. And if they should succeed, take joy. There was nothing which could entice her to risk their lives together. She loved him. It was both simple and complex. He was... generous, complicated, frustrating, intelligent, annoying, sexy, fascinating... He was the love of her life. Scully lifted her head from his chest and rubbed her smooth cheek against his bristled jaw. He tenderly drew the collar of her coat together under her chin and pressed a kiss to her mouth. He reached down to entwine one of his hands with hers and wrapped his free arm around her waist. "I'm not going." She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to his. He watched her face with hooded eyes. "I understand why, but, Scully... your mother..." "I won't risk it." Agitated, he rubbed his forehead against hers. "I don't want you to regret it." "I'd regret more being separated from you. I can't... I won't take the chance." He worried his lip between his teeth. "Scully," His voice was little more than a mournful sigh. She took a deep breath. "Mulder..." She sighed. "I think my mother would understand. I think she does understand. I mean, after all, she spent her entire marriage uprooting her children, dragging us from base to base. Of course, she believed it was important to keep the family together, but more, I think, she did it because she loved my father and would follow him anywhere." She huffed out a watery chuckle. "She always said that I was exactly like my father, but in this respect... in this respect, I am every inch my mother's daughter." She opened her eyes and stared into his. "I told you before, Mulder... I'd follow you anywhere." End It's been so long since I've written anything. I'd forgotten how much fun it can be... and how scary. 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