"Well, I'm fairly happy. That's something."

She's smiling a big smile. No, it's a grin. An all-out, blinding Scully-grin. He knows that if he leaned over and kissed her that they wouldn't watch the video. He's so tempted. Memories of their last time together aren't nearly enough to satisfy him, and over the last few days they've been too beat at the end of the day to do anything besides say good night before parting. Mulder's emotions are high tonight. The scare he had after his peace-on-earth wish went south is too fresh. He hopes Jenn is enjoying her new life. He knows he did the wisest thing, for once. But, back to the woman sitting hip-to-hip with him on the couch. To kiss or not to kiss. God, he loved to see her look at him like that. It didn't happen enough. This is almost surreal, the two of them sitting here having a beer and watching a video. He decides against the kiss. This is precious. This is something, and he wants to enjoy it. Later they will kiss. Later they will make love. Peace-on-earth would have been good, but this is better.

*****

If someone had been watching them in silhouette, if that were possible against the sheets, the watcher would have seen one form in the bed, so close were its two occupants. This is how it had been. The past two nights, and some of the daylight hours as well, whether or not they already had, or were planning to make love, they had taken to lying naked together in the cool, darkened bedroom of the apartment. The need to feel each other's skin had become a near obsession, and indulging it kept them from crying or screaming like mad people. As it was now, the only crying came from the bassinet. Scully disengaged herself from Mulder who was sleeping rather soundly, and got up. She threw on her robe and went over and picked William up. He wasn't wet.

"Was it a bad dream?" She cuddled him close to her and stood there rocking him gently. "Oh, my sweetie, that's okay. It's going to be okay." They returned to the bed. Scully sat up against the headboard, and continued to murmur softly to her beautiful little boy, while gazing at her beautiful big one as he slept on. She said a small prayer of thanks.

The past two days had been wearing, not to mention unreal. Unreal was a relative concept in Scully's life, but she'd never felt this way before. Earlier this night they had finally decided to turn the television off. It was all too sad to bear watching any longer. Yesterday afternoon, badly needing a respite, they had taken William out in his stroller, but otherwise had been in the apartment, with the news coverage humming constantly in the background.

Scully didn't want to contemplate what would come next. She wanted to stay right here, holding onto the small piece of sanity that she and Mulder had managed to claim for themselves and the little miracle she held in her arms. She didn't want to think about anything else. Of course, that was impossible. She kissed William's sweet, soft cheek. He was almost back to sleep. Then it was Mulder's turn.

"Scully," he said, too loudly. William started to cry again. Mulder sat up, startled, and looked around him. What was going on? Scully was here, and she had a baby with her. Where were they?

"Mulder, are you all right? Were you dreaming?" Scully looked at him anxiously. William continued to cry. "That's okay, now, sweetie. It's all right. It looks like your Daddy had a bad dream, too."

Daddy. Oh. That brought him back. Mulder got up and went to use the bathroom. When he finished he splashed some cold water on his face, and then returned to the bed. William had stopped crying. "That scared the hell out of me."

"What, your dream?"

"Yeah, for a minute there, I didn't know where I was or what you were doing here in bed with me holding a baby."

"But you know now, though."

"Yes. Come here." Scully moved away from the headboard and backed into his arms, which he wrapped around her and William. He felt like Superman, sitting there with the two people most precious in the universe enfolded in his embrace. Nothing could happen to any of them as long as they stayed like this. It was a nice little fantasy. He twisted his face around to look at Scully. She smiled at him. As long as he could look upon that smile, there would be hope in his world. He tried to imagine what experiencing the the last couple of days would have been like without her and William in his life, and he couldn't do it.

"Mulder, thank you."

"For what, forgetting about you?"

"No, but don't make a habit of it."

"Never."

"Thank you for everything. You've made me happier than I ever expected to be."

"That's still something, then?"

She smiled, remembering their first date, such as it was. "That it is."

He hugged her a little tighter, but not so tight as to awaken William, who was now asleep. "Maybe we need to have another video night sometime soon. You can choose this time."

"Deal."

They were quiet for a few minutes, silently acknowledging the safe haven they provided each other. They would face the unspeakable actions of the last few days, knowing that they were among the lucky ones. For once, there was no doubt about that.

Scully was starting to look dozy, so Mulder took William from her arms and placed him between the two of them. They didn't do this often, but tonight was different. Together was a good thing, tonight. He kissed William's forehead, and Scully's cheek, and then ran his forefinger over her lips, gently. Her head had found the pillow, and she was nearly out. "Love you," he whispered in her ear. He then turned onto his side and lay facing William. "You, too." He'd just closed his eyes when a throaty mumble came from the other side of the bed.

"Love you Mulder. Something. Really something."

~ End ~

Author's note - I removed this vignette from this site several years ago after rethinking whether it was in good taste to use the events of 9/11 even in a very small way as I have here, in a fic. As this was written just a few days after that day, possibly it wasn't. I was not alone - there were many stories posted during this time that incorporated 9/11. I've lost track of the one I remember best, and think it probably was taken off the web as well. I'm restoring mine. To honor the day and the people.

September 11, 2011

Archiving: If you would like to archive anywhere, I'd appreciate a quick note first. E-mail: leighchristine@hotmail.com

Feedback: Always happy to receive it.

This story is (c) Copyright 2001 by Christine Leigh. "The X-Files" and its characters are the property of the Fox Network and Ten-Thirteen Productions and are borrowed here without profit or intent for profit.