#dad mulder

[justawfulxmenart]

I’ll just bet Fox Mulder is an awesome dad ...

[astridncs]

Saturdays with Dad

A clingy William wouldn’t let Mulder out of his reach.

tagging @today-in-fic | also in AO3 | a part of this William series

--

Scully was sent to California for a conference that she couldn’t refuse to, so, she was there for the weekend leaving 4-year-old William and Mulder at home. She was bound to be home on Sunday and so far everything was running smoothly at the Mulder residence.

It was a Saturday, the second day that Scully wasn’t home. Mulder woke up in his usual time and although he was planning for a run, the slight drizzle outside pushed him not to. That morning seemed a little odd, he thinks, probably because William hasn’t come barging into the room with his usual happy morning self.

Something was wrong, he thinks, and heads to William’s bedroom that was across from theirs. There he finds the 4-year-old curled up like a pill bug almost awake. His pajama pants have ridden up a bit and Mulder couldn’t help but chuckle. William was such a mini Scully through and through. He sits on the bed and brushes off the auburn bangs that the little boy inherited from his mother off his face.

“Daddy?” William murmured.

“Hey, buddy. It’s time to wake up.” Mulder softly said as William slowly got up and flung himself onto his dad. Burying his face on his Dad’s neck and his little arms wrapping around him as well. He was so much like his mother when they were being clingy, Mulder mused.

“Breffast?” He asked and Mulder felt his arms tighten around his neck. He was sure William was going to be clingy the whole day.

“Okay, buddy, let’s get you something to eat,” he says. “How about we also give Mommy a call, huh?” He suggested and William nodded his head.

It took three rings before Scully answered, and Mulder and William have already moved to the kitchen.

“Mulder?” Scully answered. “Hey, how are you?”

“Hey, Scully, we’re good. We just woke up,” he replied. “We’re going to be having some breakfast in a while. Just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Oh, I’ve missed you. Both of you,” Scully sighed. Being away from his two boys was always difficult for her, even if it’s just for a few days. “Is William there with you?” She asked.

“Yeah, hang on,” Mulder said then turned his attention to William. “Mommy wants to talk to you, Will.” He tells him and William eagerly nodded his head from his place on the highchair.

Mulder pressed the loudspeaker button and Scully’s voice echoed through the room. As Scully and William conversed he set into grabbing bowls and boxes of cereal from the cupboard. He listened in as he poured cereal and milk into his and William’s bowls.

“Hi, sweetheart! How are you?” Scully asked and William babbled his response.

It was amusing to hear mother and son talk over the phone and Mulder loved listening to it. After a couple more minutes of talking to William then to Mulder, Scully ended the call. She was off to attend another symposium and although she liked it, all she wanted was to get home, fast.

Both Mulder men finished their breakfast and since it was a Saturday, they could simply lounge on the couch. Mulder turned the TV on and switched the channel to PBS, there William was able to watch some cartoons. As Mulder tried to set the little boy next to him on the couch, William simply tightened his hold around Mulder’s neck

“No go, Daddy.” William said and Mulder just nodded. The little boy turned himself and settled himself against Mulder, his back around his dad’s chest. Watching cartoons was a peaceful thing to do; William occasionally pointing stuff out and Mulder interacting back.

After an episode of Blues Clues has finished, William has gotten bored and a little bit sleepy, so Mulder suggested a nap before lunch time. They headed to the nursery but William almost cried and insisted on napping in his parent’s bedroom. Mulder didn’t object so they headed there.

All the while in bed, William snuggled himself to Mulder. He laid his head on Mulder’s chest, near his heart, just like what Scully would do. Mulder realized the little boy was already asleep when he felt drool wetting the front of his shirt. He simply chuckled and pressed a kissed on the boy’s head. William stirred and moved as if trying to snuggle himself against Mulder even more. Years from now, William wouldn’t want to be doing this – the snuggling, cuddling, and the like – so moments like this, Mulder cherishes it every time. He vowed and always vows to spend time with William, to make every memory worthwhile.

[freckleslikestars]

In Languorem

Emily’s sick and Mulder takes care of her, set in my Emily lives universe

1400 words, read here on AO3

‘Mommy?’ the small voice broke the silence of the room, the dim glow of the nightlight in the hall filtering through the crack in the door, ‘Mommy, wake up.’

‘Em, what is it?’ Mulder lifted himself on his elbow to see over Scully’s sleeping form, locking eyes with wide, watery blue eyes.

‘I don’t feel well.’

‘Okay, Baby,’ he nodded, sitting up and slipping out of bed, walking round to where Emily stood, placing his hand on her forehead and nodding, ‘you’re warm, aren’t you?’ she just groaned and he nodded again, brushing his hand round to the back of her neck to check for any lumps, breathing a relieved sigh when he felt nothing unusual, ‘come on, Baby, let’s go outside so we don’t wake Mommy,’ he whispered, scooping her into his arms and carrying her out of his and Scully’s bedroom. He got no further than two steps when she pulled back from him and heaved, covering both of them in her half-digested dinner. Emily promptly burst into tears and he hushed her as he stepped into the bathroom and flicked on the lights, ‘hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s okay.’

‘I’m sorry, Mulder,’ she snivelled as he perched her on the toilet seat, brushing tangled hair back from her face and reaching over to the sink for the washcloth Scully had left drip-drying on the edge.

‘It’s okay, Baby. You couldn’t help it,’ he mopped at her face before looking down at each of their soiled pyjamas. Despite having made progress in the past few years with bath time for Emily, he was certain that right now, in the middle of the night when she was still half asleep and not feeling well, a bath would not be a simple procedure, so he pulled the shower door open and turned it on, leaving it to warm up whilst he returned to Emily. ‘Let’s get you cleaned up, huh? Arms up,’ he smiled softly as she wriggled out of her pyjamas with his help, then shed his own, grabbing Emily’s strawberry shampoo from the edge of the bathtub and helped her under the warm spray.

Showers, for Emily, were something that only ever happened on Sunday mornings before church with Scully, or occasionally with Mulder when breakfast had resulted with jam everywhere and everyone was late for work and day-care.

He soaked her hair through, massaging the sickly sweet strawberry shampoo into her scalp. She giggled when he sculpted her hair into spikes before she covered her eyes with her hands and tilted her head back at his request to wash out the lather. ‘All gone,’ he said with a tap on her head, ‘hand?’ she proffered her cupped hands and he dropped a tiny dollop of Scully’s lavender dreams shower gel into her palms in the hope that the scent might help her sleep. Whilst she sudsed her little body up he scrubbed shampoo through his hair and, with a shrug, also used Scully’s lavender shower gel. ‘All done?’

‘Uh-huh,’ she nodded sleepily and he smiled, shutting the shower off and picking her up so she didn’t slip on the tiles. Grabbing two towels from the radiator he swaddled her in one and wrapped the other around himself before picking her up again and carrying her through to her bedroom, turning just the lamp on her bedside table on.

‘You feeling better, little monkey?’

‘Bit.’

‘Okay,’ he nodded, ‘you pick some pyjamas out whilst I get some for me.’

He came back in joggers and a clean t-shirt, holding a plastic mixing bowl from the kitchen under his arm. Emily was fighting her way into a nighty, somehow managing to get it back to front with an arm through the neck hole and her head through an armhole. ‘Come here, sleepy-head,’ he righted her then sat on her bed behind her and rubbed the water out of her hair with her towel. He ran a brush through it, then platted it the way Scully had shown him to.

‘Can I have Mommy?’

‘No, Baby, Mommy needs her sleep.’

‘Is Mommy sick, too?’

He shook his head, ‘she’s just tired from growing the baby.’

‘Why?’

‘Well,’ he murmured, tucking her into bed and stroking her forehead, ‘you need lots of sleep so you can grow big and healthy, and Mommy’s got to sleep for her and the baby so both of them are big and healthy.’

‘But you’re big and you don’t ever sleep, Mulder?’

He chuckled, nodded, ‘that’s because I’ve done all of my growing. Imagine if I slept any more than I do? I’d be like the giant from the top of the beanstalk.’

‘More like the BFG.’

‘Yeah? Shall I read you some to help get you to sleep?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Okay. Budge up,’ he nudged her so she wriggled across and he squeezed himself onto the bed next to her, picking up the book from the bedside table. ‘Where were we?’

‘The BFG had just put Sophie in the Queen’s window.’

‘Ah, that’s right,’ he cleared his throat, ‘Chapter Nineteen: The Queen. Dawn came at last...’

~~~

He was stirred awake by Scully shaking his arm, face tense with concern.

‘Mm, time is it?’

‘About four. What’s wrong with Em?’

Mulder rubbed his eyes, looked over at the little girl sleeping beside him in the warm light of the lamp on the table next to him. She’d been sick once more in the bowl he’d brought through, but otherwise, she’d slept soundly. ‘Stomach bug I think. She’s fine.’

Scully’s concern turned to panic, reaching across to check the back of her daughter’s neck, her arms.

Before she could wake the girl, Mulder caught her hands, clasped them in his own, ‘hey, hey, I checked. She’s fine, okay?’

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

‘Scully,’ he sighed, easing himself out of the bed and guiding her to the door with a hand on the small of her back. With the door shut quietly to keep Emily sleeping, he turned her around so she was facing him and brushed his thumb along the worry lines across her forehead and around her eyes. ‘I didn’t wake you because you need your sleep. And, more importantly, because I don’t want you to catch whatever Em has,’ his hands dropped to her small bump, long fingers reaching almost entirely across it. ‘If it were something more serious I would have woken you and we’d have taken her to hospital, but it’s not. She’s a child, she probably just picked something up from one of the other kids at day-care or preschool.’

‘Still, she-‘

‘I know, Scully. I know,’ he sighed, pressed a kiss to her forehead. ‘This worrying isn’t good for you or baby, though. Go on back to sleep. I’ll stay with her and we can all take the day off tomorrow and have a sick day, okay?’ he could see it wasn’t going to work, could see her jaw setting and the stubborn look in her eye. Scully was nothing if not protective of her young.

‘Maybe I should stay with her tonight. Just to make sure.’

‘Scully, I’m more than capable.’

A challenging look in her eye, ‘I didn’t know you were a doctor.’

‘No. But in three months there will be a piece of paper saying I’m her father, okay?’ he pulled her into his arms, held her tight and rested his cheek on the crown of her head, ‘you’ve got to let me help from time to time. You’ve got to trust me.’

‘I do, Mulder, you know I do, but-‘

‘It’s hard, I know. She’s your baby. But we have another baby coming that needs you strong and healthy and not having stomach bugs.’

‘I... can you please just bring her through to our room? Have her sleep with us? I’m not going to sleep otherwise.’

Mulder sighed, nodded, pressed another kiss to her forehead, ‘okay. You go lay down, I’ll carry her through.’

And so, with Emily nestled between them, and their alarm clocks turned off, they slept, fitfully, each waking up to check her temperature and her neck and her breathing, just in case. And in the morning Scully called Skinner - whilst Mulder vomited into the toilet and Emily snored in the middle of their bed – predicting that neither her nor Mulder would be in for a couple of days.

Tagging @today-in-fic

[cryptidsolo]

Family vacation to a ufo hotspot that mulder SWEARS he didn’t know about

Ko-fi

[lokisgame]

Love & Heartbreak

A/N: Emily AU

Emily was walking home quickly, trying to figure out how to make sense of what she was feeling. Her hands were shaking, heart beating too fast. She tried biting her lip to hold back a smile, but it only made her smile wider. She hugged the books she was carrying, reliving how they hit the floor when she bumped into him between the book shelves in the school library. How he knelt and helped her pick them up and apologized for his clumsiness, saying something about walking and reading at the same time. She felt her fingers tingle when they brushed his as they both reached to pick up the last book of the floor. She noticed his eyes just inches away. She never thought she would do this and flushed again at the memory. She kissed a boy! In the library! She kissed him as if it was now or never. And then ran away! "EMILY" she heard him calling, running to catch up to her "You forgot this" he panted handing her a biology textbook, which she noticed was not hers. "Thank" she wanted to say but couldn't finish because his quick kiss caught her lips. "You" he finished for her quietly, and was gone before she even knew it. Like she lost time for a minute.

Mulder was sitting in his car with Will in the back seat, waiting for Emily to finish the swim team practice. He was watching as she talked to one of her friends in the doorway. The boy's taller than her, though that wasn't too hard to accomplish really, looked confident and apparently interested in her. Probably captain of the boys team. She listened to him politely as he explained something to her gesturing animatedly. Mulder knew that look. He saw it on her mother often enough, listening to countless local officials, cops, sheriffs, doctors, victims and witnesses. 99 percent of her attention on the boy. He thought to himself, is this it? Is this the boy that will make her heart beat faster? "She doesn't even like him" Will piped up, not taking his eyes from his comic book. "How do you know?" He looked at Will in the rearview mirror. "I just know" he replied with a shrug, and Mulder looked back to Emily, to see as she casually moved her hand behind her back as another boy brushed passed them saying something in a hurry, his goodbyes probably. The boy had messy dark hair, was tall for his age, and giving the time and place must have been on the swim team as well. He noticed something familiar about him. The smile spreading across his face as he passed him on his bike. Mulder knew that smile because he saw it often enough as well. On his own face. "How about this one?" He asked Will, who shrugged again but with a smile this time.

He knows fear, fear is blue, mom and dad are blue sometimes. When they are blue, someone usually ends up in a hospital. He knows anger, anger is gray, the color of smoke and it smells like cigarettes. Happiness is different for everyone, but still unmistakable, it's when people shine the brightest, for mom it's sunflower yellow, for dad it's something between orange and red, the closest thing being Em's hair color, and as he suspects mom's as well. He doesn't get how it works, but he accepts it. He's lived his whole life like this. In time the colors fade, blur and mix as he starts to better understand emotions of others. He knows them because he sees them. He feels them, other people's feelings.

Mulder found Will curled up on the couch. Usually he was doing homework in his room right after he got back from school, took after his mother that way, but today textbooks littered the coffee table in front of him. He must have gave up on them a while ago, because on tv Han Solo was trying to blast his way out of detention block AA23. He was hugging a pillow and watching Star Wars. Again. "Hey buddy, what's wrong?" "I can't stand it up there" "Your room?" "Emily's. She had a fight with Lucas. Again."

The swing had seen better days, but it's the one place she liked to go where no one bothered her. The slow sway back and forth, as mindless as cracking of sunflower seeds and spitting shells under her feet. He found her there, invaded her refuge unaware of the silent agreement they had at home. "Why did you run away?" Lucas asked sitting next to her "You think I want this?" Emily hung her head, hiding behind a curtain of hair. She knew it wasn't his fault. Salt from the seeds burned her lips, burned the feeling of his kiss. She wanted to forget. "Go away" her eyes burned as well, her throat almost closed. "Why?" He reached for her hand but she quickly pulled away. "Just go" "We still have a month, Em." A month, their sentence. "I don't..." his voice broke "Tomorrow" was all she could say, she needed time, she needed her mom, she needed her strength.

Mulder walked through the yard with every intention of protecting his daughter from whatever pain the boy might cause her, but as the kid walked his way and nodded at him, his eyes red, jaw clenched, unable to speak, he stopped himself. The kid looked as if he was in just as much pain as her. Emily stayed in her place, and he walked to her. Her fist clenched around the bag of seeds in her lap, her shoulders trembled with held back tears. Like her mother, she suffered in silence. He knelt before her, stoping her from swinging away with his palms on her bony knees. "What happened?" He asked, reaching to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, it was growing long, almost reaching her shoulder this year, she'll probably want to cut it again soon, he wondered. She looked up at him in that moment and her resolve broke, a hitched breath turned into a sob and tears spilled down her cheeks and she collapsed into his arms, crying and holding on as tight as her 16 year old arms would allow. All Mulder could do was hold on to her, hold her pieces together as she fell apart, still oblivious to reasons behind it. Her breath hitched, body trembling, she tried to speak but her voice wouldn't come washed away by wave after wave of tears that shook her. He stroked her back, her head, whispered words of comfort swallowing his own tears. Her pain was his pain, forever. He managed to the loose track of time before she calmed and took a shuddering breath, his shirt felt damp and cold when her grip loosened. "He's leaving" she said in a small voice, still hidden in his arms, "He dumped you?" Mulder tried to take a look at her face but she only hid deeper, hugged him tighter. "No, he's leaving, moving to London" she whispered "It's over" His heart broke for her and he pulled her closer, the powerlessness, the injustice, it had to feel like the end of the world to her. "Oh baby, don't say that" he tried to find words to ease her pain, but his own brain struggled through haze of memories. "But it's the truth" she sniffed and pulled away, wiping her eyes with the edge of her sleeve. "I'll never see him again" He knew the feelings all to well, each time he came close to losing Scully, it felt like drowning. But Emily was still so young with whole life ahead of her. Mulder searched for some shred of hope she could hold on to, a thread to tie around her heart, to keep it from breaking beyond repair "You never know, and even miles apart, you still can be friends." All he could do was hope he was right this time, he and Phoebe, his high school love didn't have that much luck, but he couldn't tell her that. "He'll forget about me" her lip started to tremble dangerously as he took her sweet face in his hands to look into her eyes "No, baby, he won't!" He said with full confidence this time before pressing a kiss to her forehead "Nobody forgets their first love"

[mulderscully]

Do you ever think about William? 

[baronessblixen]

Not sure if this is the kind of prompt you'd like, but I trust your fluffy genius! Sooo... my prompt is that their now 8 year old daughter comes home from school upset one day. Turns out the other kids in class were making fun of her because her dad is "old". How would 64 year old Mulder handle that one? ;)

Sorry it took me so long! It was extremely hard to write and I’m not sure how it turned out. I hope you like it anyway. Earlier today @frangipanidownunder tackled the same prompt. Everyone go read that one as well! Tagging at @today-in-fic

An angry thumpannounces her arrival. The backpack bangs against the wall and Mulder is up inan instant – she knows she's not supposed to throw it, or anything else, insidethe house. They had to state that rule, as well as every other one, veryspecifically. Because the youngest Mulder knows her way around the rules.

"KatherineMargaret Mulder, you know that-" The full name treatment is what Scullyusually does. Mulder, they all know it, is more or less useless in serioussituations. The girl, just about to storm off, stops and stares at him. She hasher arms crossed and looks like a tiny version of her mother. Except for thedarker, longer hair and his own stubborn chin.

"I have myreasons!" She yells and stomps off into the living room where she plopsdown on the couch. Mulder follows her, quietly amused. Scully tells him thatshe's all him, going off at every chance and at the slightest inconvenience. Ifshe's like this at eight years, what are they in for once she becomes ateenager? He chuckles; he can't wait to find out.

"Care to tell mewhat happened, peanut?" Mulder sits across from her in one of thearmchairs they bought a few years ago. Jackson pointedly called them 'oldpeople furniture' when he first saw them. That earned him an eyebrow from hismother, but the children still jokingly call them that.

"Daddy, are youold?" Mulder is glad he's sitting down. That's one question he didn'texpect. But their daughter is not one to beat around the bush. She talks a lot,always has, and speaks her mind. Always. Another thing Scully tells him shegets from him.

"Am I old?"He asks just to make sure he's understood her right. Katie nods.  

"The kids atschool say you are. They say you and mommy are old. Like grandparents old. Whatdoes that mean, dad?" He's feared this conversation for years and he'shoped he still had more time. Katie stares at him with her curious eyes. She,unlike him, is not worried; she just wants to understand. A few years backwhile at the store, another mother referred to him as Katie's grandfather. Whenhe corrected her, both of them blushing, he felt old. Never in his life had hefelt as old as that moment. It passed, was forgotten when Katie, still atoddler then, giggled and squealed. But every once in a while, when someonelooks funny at him, when they pause and swallow hard once they find out who heand Scully are, how old they are, he remembers.

In the early days ofthe pregnancy when uncertainty and fear ruled their days and nights, he andScully imagined moments like this one. All the what if's. What if somethinggoes wrong? What if we're too old to do this? What if we can't keep up with ourchild? What if one of us… even now, years later, Mulder doesn't want to thinkabout it. There was another what if, one he doesn't want to think of now as helooks at his daughter. What if we're not going to have the baby? They spokeabout it exactly once. It was a Sunday, sunny and friendly. Scully was sick, sovery sick with morning sickness, and he uttered the words as he rubbed herback. What if, Scully. They looked at each other then, tears and doubts sharedwithout a single word spoken, knowing that it wasn't a possibility, not really,not for them. No matter what the circumstances.    

"Daaaad."Katie's eyes grow big and impatient; she doesn't have the time. She can't wait.Not for dinner, not for her birthday and most of all not for an explanationfrom her old man. There's that word again: old.

"It'scomplicated, Katie." She groans and throws herself against the couchcushion. "It really is." Mulder tells her and puts a hand on herknee. Try again, her eyes seem to say to him, not good enough.

"You do know howold your mother and I are, right?" Katie thinks about it for a moment andhe is certain can see her count in her head, then nods. "Do you know howold Josh's parents are?" The boy is her best friend and Mulder knows thathis parents could almost be his children. Almost. Katie shakes her head."What do you think? Are they as old as I am?" He holds his breath,waiting. Katie furrows her brows, stares him up and down, examines him.

"I don't know. Josh'smom is home a lot like you, but that's because of the baby. Josh's dad is badat baseball and soccer." Mulder suppresses a grin; this is not the momentto make fun. "Is he older than you are, dad?" Katie's question isgenuine, but for the first time he sees the spark of something else in hereyes. Uncertainty, he thinks. He wishes Scully were here. He might be good atbaseball and soccer, but right now he feels useless. He's 64 years old. He cando this.

"No, honey. I'molder than him." Much older, he thinks, but doesn't say it. Confusionwashes over Katie's face and she stares at him, still waiting. As the pregnancyprogressed, Scully would remind him to take it one day at a time because theydidn't know what might happen tomorrow. But with each passing day, Mulder beganto feel more and more thankful. It was a second chance. He watched Scully'sstomach grow and he recorded every little change. He was there for everydoctor's appointment, held her hand through the first sonogram, through thefirst test results – everything. This time he was there for it all. A bittersweetsensation knowing what he'd missed the first time. When Jackson came back intotheir lives Scully was four months pregnant. One night Mulder found their sonin the living room browsing through a baby catalogue. He looked up sheepishlyand Mulder sat next to him, neither of them saying a word for the longest time.'It's too late to buy a crib for you, but there's a bed for you here always. Welove you, Jackson, and you're part of this family.' That was that. In the end,it was a second chance for all of them.

"So you are old?"Katie reminds him not to get lost in his thoughts and memories, but to be herein the now. He nods. He wishes he wasn't. Oh, how he wishes Katie had comealong ten years earlier. Mulder still dreams that Jackson grew up with them,free from pain and terror, and that Katie was born a few years after herbrother. A picture perfect family. He wakes up from that dream, always. Theirlife, their real life, is good; of course it is. He wouldn't trade it foranything in the world, now. He and Scully are, against all odds, healthy. Shemakes him have regular check-ups and if he's reluctant every once in a while,she just gives him a look. She's right. They have plans in check, financial andotherwise. If anything were to happen to them, Jackson would get custody. Allthese things loom above them just like heart attacks, arthritis, dementia. Hedoesn't want to think about it, wants to just live. For Katie's sake he has tothink about all of it. They've been lucky until now. So very, very lucky.

"Does that meanyou can't play baseball with me anymore?" Katie's voice breaks, soundsimpossibly young. Mulder engulfs her in his arms, holds her as tightly as hecan. She sobs into his shoulder and he rubs her back soothingly.

"Don't worry aboutthings like that, Katie. We just played baseball this weekend, didn't we?"She nods against him and wipes her nose on his shirt. "See? I'm not tooold to play." But he remembers falling asleep watching a movie that night.When it happens to Scully, even after all these years, he just smiles. She'sbeen falling on asleep on him for 30 years. He's used to it. His own exhaustion,the little aches and pains, are newer to him, but even they feel familiar now.There will come a day when lifting a bat will cause too much pain. When histhrowing arm will give in. He just hopes that it happens once Katie is grownand no longer interested in playing. He knows he will do everything in hispower to make it so.

"As long as youcan play baseball, dad," Katie wipes her nose again before she looks athim, "you're not too old. I'll tell everyone tomorrow. They got it allwrong." She assures him and he smiles, thanks her with a kiss on her cheek.It should be him taking the fear off her mind, not the other way around. Mulderopens his mouth, ready to say more, when the front door opens. Katie jumps up,accidently kicks his shin, and runs towards her mother.

"Mommy!"Mulder hears as he rubs his throbbing shin. "Daddy and I were just talkingabout how old you two are." He chuckles from his place on the couch. Amoment later, Scully's head pops around the corner and Mulder forgets time andspace looking at her. No matter his age, no matter her age, this has neverchanged; it never will. Right now he doesn't feel like he's 64 – and shedoesn't look like she's 61, ever. When he's with Scully, he doesn't feel old. Helooks at her and sees his whole life.

"Are you allright?" Scully asks him, amusement swinging in her voice. He nods.

"Katie kicked myshin by accident. I will be fine."

"Oh, I was soworried for a moment." Scully says and walks over to him. She leans downto him and kisses his lips softly. "What was that talk all about?"Her voice is softer now, quiet. Katie is in the hall, talking to herself,mumbling about homework. Mulder loves listening to her, but Scully's gaze isinsistent.

"She asked me ifI was old. I tried to explain, but… you know." She nods, seems tounderstand.

"We knew thatmight be an issue one day."

"I thought oneday would be much later. Or never."

"You always wantto believe." He receives another smile, another soft kiss. "How didshe take it?" Before he can answer, Katie strolls back in. She's grinningfrom ear to ear and crawls into Mulder's lap.

"Mommy, guesswhat! Daddy is not too old to play baseball!" She exclaims in a bubblyvoice. Scully gives him a serene look; maybe he hasn't completely screwed this up.She smiles at her daughter, tries to tame a strand of stubborn hair by tuckingit behind her ear.

"That's the mostimportant thing, isn't it?" Mulder decides that it really is, in the end.  

[scully-loves-ruthie]

Ok everyone read this fic right now by @settle-down-frohike because this totally happened and I never knew how much I needed this story in my life until right now!!!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9773825