Chapter Text
Scully slumped back into the aged forest leather as it molded to her curves. It was as welcoming an embrace as a roaring fire on a cold wintery day. The wrinkles from Mulder’s many sleepless nights jutted from the cushion like the veins in the arm of the Hulk. She reached for his throw pillow and hugged it against her chest. The scent of Mulder’s aftershave played dominant, but his genuine mixture of the warmth of an ozone blue sky and a birch tree in the middle of white-hot Area 51 was intoxicating. It slowed the beat of her heart and lulled her into a tranquil slumber.
A suitcase thumped the floorboards and jolted Scully awake. “Hey sleepyhead,” Mulder said with a crooked smile.
“Mulder,” Scully yawned. “You’re back.”
“Yes, and you’re in my apartment,” he returned, joining her on the couch. He tilted his brow. “Not that I mind.”
“How’s your mother doing?” Scully asked carefully.
Mulder shrugged. “She’s alive, but very out of it. In the morning there are tests you can do to confirm it’s actually her.”
“I can look at the telomeres at the end of her chromosomes. Unless they cloned the exact state of the telomeres, there should be an abnormal length for a person of her age. Plus I can look for known scars, fillings, fingerprints, iris patterns, and if the antibodies in her system match illnesses contained on her health record.”
Mulder nodded, but she was certain she’d have to expound on her statements tomorrow.
“Your mother was very pleased to have my mother stay with her,” he explained. “That’s what kept me so late. She insisted on making me something to eat and had lots of questions.” Mulder paused. “Diana wasn’t with me if that’s your concern.”
“No concerns.” Scully ran her hands down the length of her thigh to dry her palms and tightened her lip. “I told Daniel it would be best if we didn’t see each other anymore.”
“Oh?”
“I think it’s best for both of us that way.” Scully sighed deeply. “To think, I considered spending the rest of my life with that man.” The natural inclination of her hand covered her belly, her eyes following, “What I would have missed.”
“ I don’t think you can know, I mean how many lives would we be leading if we made different choices, We don’t know. You could have been married with four children.” Softly his hand rested on hers atop her belly. A blaze of heat seared inside Scully’s chest when he added, “But they wouldn’t have been ours.”
Scully looked down again at his hand covering hers over their growing baby, then returned her attention to Mulder. Their gaze lingered, warming the space between them, flaring and simmering and flaring again, until Scully shifted and leaned back, her head resting at the top of the cushion. It had been a long day and an even longer wait for Mulder’s return, but now with him beside her she could finally relax. The baby felt like it was zapping all her energy. As her arm drifted to her side, she grasped Mulder’s hand, her eyelids heavy, she allowed her body to succumb, hearing the faint words of Mulder as she drifted.
“All the choices along the way have led us to this very moment. One wrong turn and we wouldn’t be sitting here together. That says a lot. Says a lot alot alot. Probably more than we should be getting into at this late an hour.“
Waiting for her response he turned his head to see her already asleep. He knew she had stressed herself this weekend, he could see it in her eyes when he first walked in. He stared at her just to watch her sleep, beautiful and peaceful. Tenderly, with the utmost care, he tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear, studying her with such an immense affection that it spread through his body mending every void inside. For a long minute he searched her features, at the face he had grown to adore on a level so deeply. All those years that had filled his memory -the young determination she had shown attempting to get the powers that be to listen to the science to prove uncovered truths, the sound of her voice guiding him from the blindness, tremors, and disorientation as the alien entity took over his brain, the wiser eyes that shared his pain at the loss of his sister.
Her refusal to leave his side, even through the roughest of storms, had brought them to where they were at that moment and for that he would forever be grateful. For now, though, he would let her rest. Meticulously he fixed his throw around her, tucking her in. He held her hand for a moment more, before rising and heading to the shower.
Scully stirred, disorientated at first in the dark room, the bubbling of the fish tank filter bringing it all to the forefront of her mind. The blanket felt rough, but soft against her skin, the remnants of Mulder’s intrinsic caring. From the shadowed living room she could hear the steamy shower hitting the cold tile through the wall, interrupted by the hum of the heater. In the far distance the elevator dinged, followed by hushed voices and footfalls in the hallway as Mulder’s neighbors headed into their apartments.
Sleep slipped from her grasp as her mind spun, thinking of all she wanted to tell him. She didn’t want to wait any longer.
All her thoughts and feelings blended together as she approached his bedroom, her heart beating hard. The bathroom door swung open and Mulder emerged.
“Hey,” he said, his voice low and buttery. “I wasn’t expecting you to be up.”
Even though he was wearing a towel cinched at the waist, she had to force her eyes not to roll down to glance below his chiseled abs. It was all she could do to raise her chin to meet his gaze. She couldn’t count the times his body had been bared to her and yet every time it never failed to affect her. Her mouth slacked, but no words emerged.
“What is it?” Mulder asked delicately.
She wanted to tell him everything she had kept buried for far too long. What her mother had goaded her to explain. Looking now into his freshly shaven face, smooth and softer than before, exacerbating his hard chiseled jaw….. she lost all nerve.
Mulder studied her with a curious look, then lightly took her hand. “Scully, in my vision last year, the one of the life I didn’t choose.. that vision left me with no regrets about choosing this one. Your experience over the weekend, the path you didn’t choose..”
“I would have never chosen it, Mulder,” she said, almost cutting him off. “Even back then there was a voice inside me telling me it was wrong, that there was more.” She tried to ignore the heart hammering in her chest or the acid in her stomach working on her insides like a power drill. “You, Mulder, this, this is that more, and even though it was nothing I ever fantasized about, even though I also had my moment of doubt, I am very much in love with this life.. Our life.. And I wouldn’t change a thing. Not if it didn’t lead me to this moment, right here, with you.”
Their gaze lasted longer than it should, a weighted silence falling between them.
Not knowing what else to say, Scully turned to leave. Mulder's large heavy hands at her shoulders cemented her in place. “Stay,” he breathed.
The simple word sent a shockwave through her. With the sound of the rustling of the trees against the window, he pulled gently at the collar of her dark blazer and she shrugged it off, watching in the darkened room while he folded it neatly at the corner of the bed. The scent of his soap loomed behind her as she sensed the hard planes of his chest near the back of her head and felt the tickle of his fingertips as he haltingly lifted her olive sweater from her body, her arms raising almost on their own accord. With a click of the latch, her nerves heightened as she watched her bra fall to the floor while the cool air hit her skin. His bold mouth skimmed her neck, his arms folding around her, sparking her senses and heating her body.
A tinge of panic rose in her chest, she felt irrationally self-conscious at her weight gain and bulging belly. She watched on as a spectator as his hands rose from her abs and enveloped her breasts, each finger teasing the pink peaks until they prickled.
Her body pulsed, the feeling lingered and buzzed between her thighs. With a quick zip, her skirt fell from around her hips to the ground and like a call his long finger found that pulse and stroked it until it swelled and spread. Her head fell back against his shoulder, her eyes closed and anxiety grew with the sensations. Tingles shot through her like electricity, singeing her nerve endings.
“I don’t want you with anyone else.” The words spurt from her lips and her skin flushed red hot. “I want to be the only one.”
“You already are,” he whispered moltenly into her ear as his body pressed harder against hers, heating from the outside in, wrapping her heart warmly in his words. “There will never be anyone else.”
The rhythm of their breaths aligned in the darkness as Mulder pushed down her nylons; his hand skimming her thigh and over her behind as she felt his eyes absorbing every curve and freckle. It made her uneasy, a stark contrast to the sensations his hands inspired.
“Oh, Scully,” Mulder moaned into her neck, his hard erection pressed against her back, the smooth skin wrapped around the engorged nerve endings, warm and heavy resting in the place his hand often found its home.
Mulder entered slowly, teasing her with only tastes of him until she felt her core clench, and he pushed against the wave, pleasure searing through her, her hands falling to the bed for support. She felt his eyes on her again and knew his stare had landed where they were joined, making him grow harder, making her insatiably wet. She not only heard him moan, but she felt it. His fingers traced around her folds and her body contracted, pulling him deeper.
She moaned into Mulder’s next slide, he felt almost painfully good inside her. The pregnancy hormones coursing through her veins compounded Mulder’s already perfect tilt of his hips, flicking up into her with each thrust.
The feeling was overpowering, deeper and more intimate than any time before. His hand traveled across her belly, over her breasts, the other at her hips. Every gentle touch felt more intimate, while he kept his thrusts slow and deep.
“Faster, Mulder.”
“I’m enjoying the feel of you,” he hummed, pulling almost all the way out before inching back in. He moaned again and breathed hard. “I’m going to pass out. Being inside you..” His eyes closed and he moaned again. “Scully.”
Scully swallowed and the torment continued, the sensations only rising to a certain point before he slowed again. It forced her to thrust back against him and he groaned, “You do that again and I’m going to come.”
She glanced over her shoulder, “You better not.”
Scully did it again. And again.
Mulder pulled out, panting and pained. “Get on the bed. I won’t come without you.”
Scully crawled up onto the mattress and Mulder wasted no time, curling his arm around her waist, holding her against him on their knees, spooning her while he grasped her hips with his other hand and thrusted inside her. Scully, not to be outdone, rose and fell at her pace, her entire back slick from the sweat of his abs, both of them crying out, moaning, groaning, riding him hard. Her hands fisted the sheets and she paused, Mulder’s cock continuing to slide into her at an amazing pace, causing her to shut her eyes, releasing a high pitched cry.
His soft breathy groans against her ear ratched the intensity, but when his lips brushed against her throat and he kissed below her ear and murmured, “You are everything to me, Scully,” something inside her burst, the feeling spreading out in a warmth from between her legs to a fire that enveloped her entire body.
“Scully… oh, Scully,” Mulder cried, his fingers whitening as they gripped tight at her thighs. He pulled her close and thrusted deeper and harder, swelling thick and long, burying himself inside her, releasing a long, soft groan.
There was nothing she could do to stop the spiraling. Scully came. Hard. She arched back and cradled Mulder’s head in her arm as spasms of relief and pleasure rocket through her body. Another wave of pleasure shivered up her spine as she felt Mulder’s release pumping into her, her body pulsing around him.
Pressing his forehead against the top of her shoulder, they held themselves there for a moment in the darkness before he carefully pulled away, unwrapping her from his arms.
His hand danced over her bare back and he shot her a coy smile before walking over to his dresser to retrieve a pair of boxers. He tossed her one of his shirts, which she caught and slipped over her head, grateful, considering she had no other clothes with her.
As soon as he slid under the sheets, Mulder pulled her back against his chest, pressing his face among her hair, inhaling briefly. There was something in that short breath that made Scully look back at him and he leaned in to kiss her, his grip tightening around her as he did. When she pulled from his lips they shared a smile. She snuggled back against his chest, fitting perfectly inside his contours, and cherished his strong warm arms around her.
He sent a kiss to her temple. In a low monotone, Mulder rasped, “Whatever it is you want, Scully, I need you to say it.”
“I want to spend my life with you, Mulder..” she murmured as she threaded their hands and brought them to settle beneath her cheek. “Whatever that life might look like.”
Softly, he nudged her and she rotated in his arms. He searched her eyes with a strikingly vulnerable expression she wasn’t certain she had ever seen on him before. His voice broke as he declared, “I want the same.” His eyes closed as he pulled her into a deep hug.
Scully shut her own eyes and listened to the beat of his heart, letting it comfort her as her breathing slowed and her body relaxed inside his warm embrace, inside his soft cotton navy shirt. He had done so much for her and there was so much more they had yet to do. Mulder’s breathing deepened as he entered REM. It made her happy to see his mind at rest, something that rarely seemed to happen. Her body responded to his movement and when he squeezed her in tighter her heart brightened. Sex with Mulder was otherworldly to say the least. That part of their relationship, as complicated as it was, came easy. Every touch sparked something new inside her, every movement inundated her body with dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin. Being with him was addicting in the most amazing of ways and for once, it didn’t take courage, it didn’t frighten her, it just made her thankful to share her days with him and appreciate who he was and feel gratified that he would always be her partner. Breaking away from him in the morning would be too difficult and with so much to do, including getting showered and dressed for work, she decided it would be best if she left now. Although she was so comfortable, he was so… comfortable. She decided to give herself a few more minutes, give them the moment of just being.