I feel that a soulmate connection on any level is romantic. It may not be physically romantic but it is still inherently romantic. I think Ted and Rebecca by design have always been cosmically soulfully connected in ways that the universe was just not going to allow this time around uh life for them not to interact with each other. -Jason
Stella sighed contently while relaxing on the worn but loved sofa beneath her. She cradled her large bump, which was impossibly uncomfortable in her thirty-ninth week of pregnancy, and smiled to herself.
The halls were decked for Christmas and the fireplace lightly roared from across the room; and though she felt like a sweaty, gigantic mess, she couldn’t be happier as she looked around her. The spacious Christmas tree her daughter had picked out stood in the corner, its twinkling lights setting an almost romantic mood that she couldn’t wait to share with Dana later. Three monogrammed stockings were hung with care, and the house smelled of evergreen and sugar.
She knew she had to get on with purchasing and decorating a stocking for their newest arrival as per Emily’s request, but for now, she simply allowed herself to bask in the holiday spirit that she didn’t often embrace.
Hearing a bout of giggles, she turned her sights toward the kitchen where her wife and daughter were baking cookies. Emily had a dusting of flour across her nose and cheeks, and Dana had a mouthful of chocolate chips, making Stella chuckle and consider joining them for a fleeting moment. She felt far too uncomfortable to join her family, though – the baby in her womb making her back twinge with irrefutable pain – so she watched instead as Dana helped their daughter add the ingredients to their precise measurements and stir the batter.
It didn’t use to always be this way. Before she met Dana she’d hated holidays, Christmas especially. But as their lives changed, so did Stella’s attitude towards them. Christmas and Thanksgiving were now her favorite holidays as she got to spend them with her family -- something she never thought she would have and love so much that she would suffer a thousand deaths just to protect them.
The year they’d adopted Emily had been a hard Christmas, making her believe that holiday joy just wasn’t in the cards for her. She and Dana had just started their IVF journey and Stella’s hormones had been all over the place, especially when they’d found out Dana was the biological mother of a sick little girl with dead birth parents. They’d stayed in California during the process of trying to adopt Emily, and it had been an incredibly hard winter with so many ups and downs. Dana had been a woman with a dangerous job in a gay relationship, and Emily’s aunt had been a teacher with a husband and a daughter of her own who’d been willing to adopt her after hearing about the lifestyle Dana led.
It had been torturous, but after a months-long custody battle, Dana had been granted sole guardianship of Emily, and she and Stella had adopted her without a second thought. She was already so loved and cherished from the moment they’d met her and they knew that she was meant to be a part of their little family.
With Mulder's help, they’d been able to find a cure for their little girl’s disease. Dana had finally quit her job at the FBI, and she and Stella had stayed in California where Maggie moved along with them. It was a challenging first year trying to raise a three-year-old, throwing a ring ceremony, juggling new jobs, and finding out Stella was pregnant, but through it all, she never would have changed a day.
Because she was here now with her family, with a baby on the way and her favorite girls giggling in the kitchen as they made goodies for Santa. She watched as Emily tried to lick the batter and as Dana told her, “no, honey, it’s not safe to eat raw cookie dough. We don’t want to contract salmonella from the raw eggs.”
It made Stella chuckle to herself and then soothe the wiggling baby within her womb who must have been craving some of the chocolatey goodness she could smell. She logically knew that raw cookie dough wouldn’t harm the little girl with one small taste, but she let Dana continue mothering, knowing she was simply making up for lost time.
“How much longer until they are done, my loves?” she called out. It was nearing Emily’s bedtime and she knew her little girl wanted to watch a movie and read a Christmas story before bed. Plus, she knew the baby she was carrying wouldn’t rest without one of those chocolate chip cookies.
“We’re just about to put them in the oven,” Dana called over her shoulder. “Em, will you hand me that egg timer and we’ll set it for twelve minutes?”
“Yes, Mama,” the little girl said. When she completed her task setting the timer, she looked over at Stella and told her, “only twelve minutes until cookie time, Mumma!”
Stella smiled and patted the vacant cushion next to her. Emily ran over but carefully climbed up near her mother, pulling up Stella’s shirt to kiss her belly with chocolate-coated lips.
“Is my baby brother awake?”
“Mm, very much so. Here, feel.”
She placed her daughter's palm near the top of her bump, feeling baby feet stretch and kick. Which Emily loved, giggling into her mother’s pajama top -- a matching set that the three of them had.
“Go to sleepies brother,” she said to Stella’s stomach. “Santa is coming and you have to be asleep or he won’t come!”
Dana chuckled as she placed a kiss on her wife’s lips and then laid a gentle palm on the swell of her abdomen. “Hmm, he is very active tonight, isn’t he? Stel, do you need me to get you anything? Some water or a heating pad?”
“Maybe later after I’m up and moving. I’m fine for now, though. Thank you, love.”
“Just let me know if you change your mind, okay?”
“Yeah Mummy,” Emily added to the conversation. “I am big enough to heat up the hot doddle bottle if you need it! Mommy said I could!”
Stella couldn’t help but laugh along with Dana at their daughter’s pronunciation of ‘hot water bottle’.
“Thank you, darling. You’re very helpful and kind. Would you like to read your Christmas story for now, though? I know you’ve been so excited to read it.”
Dana had taken the young girl out to purchase matching pajamas for all of them, and Emily was allowed to pick whichever new Christmas book she liked. She had been impatient all day wanting to read it, pointing at the pictures of reindeer and reading it to herself despite not knowing how to.
“Christmas book!” she squealed. “I’ll get it!” Running up to her room to retrieve it, she quickly disappeared upstairs.
“Can you believe we’ll probably have two little ones during Christmas next year?” Dana asked, snuggling up to her wife and kissing her lips.
She tasted like chocolate.
“Oh, I know. You should probably hurry and get this well-done turkey out of me then,” replied Stella with a smile. “Imagine if he learns to walk early and starts running around with Em, squealing for toys and treats.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we were given lots of baby-proofing items at your baby shower last month.”
Dana kissed her wife’s temple, moving her lips down to Stella’s cheek and jaw, and then back up to her lips. Sneaking her tongue past Stella’s lips, she made her older wife moan.
“Do not tempt me right now, Dana Scully. You know I’ve been absolutely insatiable lately despite being whale-sized.”
“Stel, you’re sexy and adorable for one, and secondly, can’t I just kiss my wife on Christmas Eve? What could be more romantic?”
“Not when our almost five-year-old is on her way back down here,” she pointed out with a pout as little pounding feet raced down the hallway. “But later?”
“Promise,” Dana winked.
___
After Stella read Emily’s book with the help of Dana voicing the reindeer, the timer to the cookies went off and they all headed to the kitchen. Emily helped pour some milk into a glass and the redheaded mother set a plate of cookies out to cool before heading upstairs to grab Stella a heating pad, noticing her wife was in pain though Stella wouldn’t admit it.
“Mumma, can I have a cookie?” Emily asked with a soft, pleading voice that always managed to melt her mother’s heart into a big puddle and disregard any responsible decisions regarding parenting.
“May I have a cookie,” Stella corrected. “It’s may I, baby.”
“Okay. May I have a cookie, Mumma?”
“You don’t want to save them for Santa? You made them so special, and just for him.”
Stella tried her best to deter her daughter from having sugar at an hour like this but Emily’s eyes widened, her lips forming into a pout as she pleaded with her pregnant mother.
“I don’t think Santa would care one bit,” Emily countered. Her expression changed into a confident demeanor, much like her mother used to when trying to convince Mulder that her theory was the most plausible one. “I bet Santa is a good sharer just like I am. I bet he would want to share with me.”
Stella let out a soft chuckle and rubbed the top of her bump where she felt a few prods and kicks. It didn’t take much for her to be convinced; Emily was her soft spot and she always made sure to let her indulge in things every once in a while, especially on holidays such as this. Stella wanted to give her daughter everything she didn’t have as a child, even silly little things like cookies on Christmas Eve.
“You may have one cookie, Em,” she said, ruffling the young girl's hair.
Emily let out a delighted squeal and climbed onto the countertop to get a better look, wanting to pick the perfect one. “Thanks, Mumma!” she exclaimed, immediately biting into the chocolate dessert.
“Easy there,” Stella said as she helped stabilize her daughter. “Be careful. We don’t need Mama to have to-”
“Mama to have to what?” Scully smiled with an intrigued brow as she entered the kitchen, holding the heating pad and an extra pillow.
“Mumma let me have a cookie!”
“Oh, I see,” Dana laughed. She kissed her daughter on the head and tried to sneak a nibble, making Emily giggle. “Are you two ready for our movie then?”
“Yep! Let’s go! I love sugar!”
Looking over at Stella – who was now smuggling her own cookie or two – Dana gave her a look of semi-disapproval, but the blonde just shrugged, communicating to her wife without words, which Dana understood.
A few minutes later, they were snuggled up on the couch with some fuzzy blankets, the fireplace popping loudly. Emily was cuddled up in the middle of her mothers, her head resting on Stella’s large bump. The Nightmare Before Christmas played softly in the background, and soon the young girl was closing her eyes and dozing off from her sugar crash.
Even without the sugar, Stella loved that Emily often found herself dozing off while snuggled into her warm and comforting body. She had worried at first that their bond would be harder to form given their lack of biology and the presence of a new and growing baby, but Emily disproved her worries every night when she lost her fight with the sandman while cuddled with her blonde mother.
“Here, I can take her upstairs,” Dana offered as the credits rolled and their daughter drooled a small puddle onto Stella’s shirt.
Stella yawned and nodded. Though she was enjoying the sleepy cuddles, she was uncomfortable from sitting for so long and desperately had to pee.
“Goodnight, my love,” she whispered into her daughter’s hair with a kiss, then sighed as Dana picked her up. She followed slowly behind them, heaving herself to her feet, and listened as Emily babbled in her sleep -- something she usually did when she was over-tired.
“‘M not scared of Santa,” she mumbled as her other mother tucked her into bed. “Mama used ta fight mons’ers with Mul’er… I‘m brave like… her.”
Both mothers had to hold in their laughter as their daughter continued to lightly snore, Dana planting a soft kiss on her forehead. Stella turned on the nightlight as well as the bathroom light across the hall, and waddled into the master bedroom, knowing that Emily would sleep heavily through the night just like her redheaded mother.
Undressing completely, she sighed as she started the shower, needing to scrub the day – and chocolate kisses – off of her body, and desperately needing the hot water on her back. It felt like it had been spasming every few minutes for the better part of two days, and she could barely keep her tears at bay sometimes.
She quickly brushed her teeth as the water warmed up, and could hear her wife’s shuffling steps as she joined her in the en suite bathroom.
“Hey,” Dana breathed as she came up behind her, wrapping her arms around Stella’s naked form.
“Mm. Hi love,” Stella hummed, her voice dropping to a low moan as her wife began kissing the back of her neck. “That feels nice.”
“Oh yeah?” Dana asked, tickling her fingers down her wife’s belly to tease her upper thighs. She sucked on her skin and pressed her hips into Stella’s back, the blonde moaning and hissing with arousal, especially as Dana slid her hands back up to cup her swollen breasts and pinch her darkened nipples.
“God, yes,” Stella exhaled, feeling the surge of arousal as well as a deep ache in her abdomen. “Oh!”
“You okay?” Dana asked, immediately stopping her movements upon hearing her wife’s alarmed tone.
“Oh my God.” Letting out a gasp, Stella widened her stance, feeling as the little trickle of fluid down her leg turned into a full-blown gush. “Dana, I think my water just broke.”
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