Mirare 7
19.
The little child comes running. “Mommy,” she asks sweetly, “Mommy, can you hold me?”
Scully lifts up her blanket and invites the child into her bed. “Can you hold me like a baby?” Emily requests.
“Okay.” Scully moves her daughter so that she’s lying in her lap. A few seconds go by, and Emily wiggles her body. “Mommy, lie down.”
Scully follows Emily’s instructions, and the child snuggles into her arms. Emily tries to fit in the space around her mother and Scully pats her back softly.
The child lies still for only a minute. Then, she climbs on top of her mother.
“Mommy.” She says, her voice heavy with sleep.
“Yes, Baby?”
“Mulder is not home.” Emily files her complaint.
“Yes, he is,” Scully chuckles. “He has to go out of town to see his mommy this weekend, so he is at home.”
“But he’s not home home with us.” Emily insists.
Scully strokes the soft hair on the child’s head. “No, he’s not home home with us.”
Emily tries her best not to pout and Scully wants to praise her for it. She knows how difficult it is for Emily to be a big girl when it comes to the Mulder department.
“I miss Mulder.”
“I know you do, Emily.” Scully soothes. “He’ll be back very soon, and I know he misses us too, he’s said so on the phone.”
Emily moves her head against her mommy’s chest. “Why am I not a Mulder?” She asks.
“Well,” Scully entertains the child. “You don’t want to be a Scully?”
“Yes, I do.”
They lie on the bed in silence for a while, and Scully thinks her child has fallen asleep.
“Mommy.” Nope, still awake.
Sometimes she wonders why Emily has so many traits and quirks that remind her of Mulder. Even the way they snuggle into her is the same, and she knows that it isn’t a learned behavior.
“Yes?”
“Why can’t Mulder be a Scully?” Emily wonders aloud.
“Well…” Scully considers the child’s words before answering. “Because Fox Scully sounds very silly. And if you say it very, very fast, what does it sound like?”
Emily tries it out by chanting Fox Scully as fast as she can. Fox Scully Fox Scully Fox Scully Fox Scully Fox Scully.
“It sounds like… a kind of pasta.” The little girl giggles. “Fusgalli!”
“What kind of pasta is Fus-ga-lli?” Scully laughs at Emily’s attempt to speak with an Italian accent.
“Hum…skinny?”
Scully agrees, “And we don’t want poor Mulder to be teased, do we, Koala?”
“No.”
“He can be Mulder Scully.” Emily suggests.
“Well, no, because there will be two Agent Scullys at the FBI, and Uncle Walter will have a very big headache about that. We don’t want Uncle Walter’s head to hurt, do we?”
Emily seriously considers whether she wants Mulder to be a Scully so badly that it would be okay for Uncle Walter’s head to hurt, and Scully files this under things to tell Mulder ASAP.
“Headache is bad.” Emily concludes compassionately. “But I wish he could be a Scully, too.”
“Come on, Baby, if you keep thinking about Mulder, his ears will burn so much that he won’t be able to sleep. The sooner you go to bed, the sooner you’ll see tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Finally, the child closes her eyes. Just when Scully is about to fall asleep, her phone vibrates softly, and she grabs it.
“Scully.”
“Scully, it’s me.” A pause.
“Mulder, you okay?” She glances at the clock. It’s 11:29 pm.
“Un-huh. I’m just calling to say that… I miss you and Baby Banana.”
“Alright, Skinny Noodles.” She laughs. “Were your ears burning?”
Reacting to a new term of endearment, Mulder’s laughter comes through the receiver. “A little. Why? Was I the hot topic before bed?”
“Maybe.” Scully answers. “It’s late, Mulder; the sooner you go to bed, the sooner you’ll see tomorrow.”
“Right.” He does sound sleepy, too. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Scully hangs up the phone; she figures that some things are better said in person anyways.
20.
“Mulder, you ready?” The child wiggles on his thighs happily.
“Uh-huh.”
“Alright. First page,” she smiles at him a little shyly. “This book be-belongs to…Emily Scully! That’s me.”
“Yep.”
“Mulder, what does ‘belong’ mean?” Curious big eyes are looking at him.
“It means ownership,” Mulder answers almost as a reflex.
“A ship? Like what John Smith rode to the New World to see Pocahontas?” The child’s eyes brighten as she draws a connection to the video she’s recently received from Grandma.
“No, not that kind of ship.” Mulder laughs. “This book belongs to you, so the book is yours. Or when someone is a part of something, like… Uncle Byers belongs to the Lone Gunmen because he is a member.”
“But Mulder doesn’t belong to the Lone Gunmen?” The child asks.
“That’s right, but I feel like I fit in, because your uncles welcome me, so I think both your mommy and I feel like we belong.”
Mulder scans his brain, checking to see if he’s left out any other meaning of the word. Guess it’s time to get a children’s dictionary.
“So, this book is mine, so it belongs to me.” Emily concludes.
“Yes, that’s right.” Mulder nods.
“And Mommy is mine, so Mommy belongs to me.” She goes on.
“Well, yes, but I usually think more like you belong to Mommy.” He chuckles.
“Mulder, do you belong to Mommy?” The child ponders aloud.
He smiles at the child’s question. “I sure am.”
“And Mommy belongs to you, too?”
“I hope so. I think so.”
“Do I belong to you?” Big-eyes here is hoping for a yes.
“Do you, Baby?” He says in a teasing tone.
“Yes!” She gives a very certain nod.
Suddenly, Emily is quiet for a while; her index finger is rubbing the Pooh Bear on the book.
“I’m dressed like Christopher Robin today,” she announces. “Yellow shirt. Blue pants.”
Mulder smirks in amusement. Dennis the Menace, Christopher Robin, he wonders where Scully’s getting these ideas when she shops for her daughter’s outfits.
“Mulder?”
“Yes, Baby Banana?”
“Belong means to be together for a long, long time, does it?”
He is not sure how to answer; he doesn’t know the etymology of the word, but he’s pretty sure Emily’s theory isn’t it. But…
“I like that. To be together for a long time is to belong.” He decides that will be his answer.
“I think I want you and me and Mommy to belong.” The child looks at him, her droopy eyes expectant.
Mulder has never known what this feeling is called, this warm and fuzzy feeling that makes him want to run away and dive right in at the same time.
“Me too,” he agrees.
“Are you ready?”
“Hum, ready for what?” He is lost, all of a sudden.
“To turn the page?”
“Yes, go right ahead, please.” He gathers the child a little closer to him, and she starts reading.
“Winnie-the-Pooh is go-ing to the…”
Are you ready, to belong? A solemn voice comes into Mulder’s mind.
He presses his cheek against the child’s soft hair and nod. Oh yes, I am.
21.
It’s a Kodak moment, that’s for sure.
She pads into the dimmed living room, with the TV off, the dinner dishes all put away, and her two babies zoned out on the couch.
Scully smiles and decides to get ready for bed before waking them up. The agreement has been that she and Mulder will not work on weekends, and if a case goes over into the weekend, they will take an equal number of weekdays off. Yet, it has been a special time, as several agents from the Forensic Lab begged her to step in and help since Agent Mitchell is on maternity leave and Agent Latoya is on his honeymoon…
Scully takes a relaxing shower and gets into her jammies. Rubbing lotion into her palm, she strolls over to the couch, ready to move her babies to bed. Emily first, and Mulder second.
She is glad that she does not need to tell Emily a bedtime story tonight, or worse, entertain her with a lullaby.
Her good luck is gone with the push of the child’s bedroom door and the hinges make a sound, waking the girl. “Mommy!” Emily yelps in delight, “You’re home!”
The little girl showers her with kisses, and Scully squeezes her little mini-me into the tightest embrace.
“Were you a good girl today, Emmi?” She says after giving her daughter a big kiss.
“Yes, Mommy.” The child nods, her head moving up and down excitedly. “I made sure Mulder ate all of his vegetables at dinner, and he only had one slice of pie.”
“Oh yea?” Scully says as she places the child into her bed, “What did you two do today?”
“I looked at the clock to see that Mulder didn’t watch more than 2 hours of TV, and we got some exercise.” The child pumps up her fist as to show her mother how fit she’s been getting. “I also took him to the park.”
“You took him to the park?”
“Yes, Mulder exercised today by becoming my car and I drove him to the park and back.” She grins mischievously. “He couldn’t put me down because I wasn’t wearing shoes.”
“Emily!” Scully mock-scolds her daughter. They have agreed that she will be wearing shoes whenever she is to leave the house.
“I made sure he drank plenty of water when we got home, and he helped me make sandwiches. We ate them with BBQ potatoes chips.”
“Sounds like fun, baby.” Scully smooths Emily’s hair. “Did you brush your teeth?”
Emily smiles, bearing all her pearl-white tiny baby teeth at her mother. “I made sure Mulder brushed for two minutes!”
Emily extends two fingers for emphasis. “We used the timer, too. Mulder is kissable. He said, Minty fresh!”
Emily’s Mulder voice results in both mother and daughter breaking out in a fit of giggles. The child’s imitation of Mulder’s playful expression is also spot-on.
“Well, thank you, honey.” Scully says, “Are you ready for a good night kiss?”
“Yes, Mommy.” The child adds sleepily, “I kept Mulder out of trouble today, Mommy.”
“Sounds like you did, baby.”
Scully kisses her daughter good night and turns off the light. She then walks back to the living room to deal with the sleeping log on the couch. She wishes that she had the strength to pick him up and deliver him to bed, too.
“C’mon, honey,” she coos. “Mulder, I’m home.”
“Hey.” He opens his eyes almost immediately, grinning at her openly, “Scully…”
Suddenly he sits up. “Where’s Emily!?”
“I tucked her in already.” She tugs him by his hand and pulls him up. “She gave me a rundown of your day. Sounds like fun; sorry I missed it.”
Mulder gives her a small peck on the temple. “Oh, you know, we always manage to have a good time when Mommy’s away…”
Mulder winks and begins, “I made sure we didn’t spend the whole afternoon staying in the house. We went to the park and ran a few laps. There were plenty of vegetables at dinner. We’re both clean and fed and very happy.”
He leans forward to put his head right next to hers, resting his chin on her shoulder. “And we both miss Mommy very much, so much that we each had a cherry popsicle from the ice cream truck at the park to ease our sorrow.”
“Emily didn’t tell me that.”
Mulder presses his lips into a thin line. “Oh, she didn’t? Well, it was very cherry and very red, almost like your lips…” He moves closer to kiss her again. “Tastes just as sweet.”
“I’m ready for bed,” she confesses softly.
“Yes, I have been waiting to tuck you in.” Mulder says with a yawn, “since I didn’t get to tuck our baby in tonight.”
She lets him pull her into the bedroom. Mom’s right, Scully thinks, they’re both convinced that they’re babysitting the other person. She’ll just have to keep this little fact to herself for now.
With a smile, Scully lies on the bed, allows herself to be tucked in by Mulder, and closes her eyes.
----- thanks for reading. tagging @today-in-fic & @mulderscreek, thanks.
