ATF Untold (PG)

He rose carefully from the bed to add some wood to the fire.  He turned to watch one of his favorite of Scully’s moves.  She didn’t wake, but began creeping to his side of the bed.

 Searching for him or wanting the warm spot he’d left.  Probably the warm spot, but it always made him smile.

He headed out to the main room and glanced upstairs.  All was quiet, the kids asleep.  He wondered what his parents would have thought about all of this; the fact that the house

was filled with a happy family.  That his four kids, four, were happy and healthy.  Katy was asleep in the new room Kevin and Todd had built her on what had been the screened in

porch, Chrissy had taken Katy’s small room off the main room and Walt and Lexie were asleep in the loft that he and Samantha had shared. 

This had been a luxury cabin when his Dad had bought it.  Two bathrooms, thank goodness, and a large master suite.  But it hadn’t been built for a family of six.  There were times

it felt crowded, but in a good way.

The atmosphere was nothing like when he had been a child.  He could remember hiding in the loft with Samantha watching their parents fight or their father conspire against humankind. 

 His children would never have to go through that, they were secure in the fact that their parents loved each other, were in love with each other.  The few disagreements they’d had over

the years had, for the most part, been because one or the other wasn’t looking after themselves well enough.

And now he had Samantha back.  He sat back on his heels watching the fire for a moment.  Samantha was back.  A smile again grew on his face. He couldn’t take any credit for her

 return.  He had Scully to thank for that.  She’d had the audacity to ask for her from them.  He had to admit he hadn’t even thought of it.  She always looked after him better than he looked

 after himself, but since the reverse was true it was okay.  And credit for Samantha’s recovery also had to go to someone else.  Bill, Bill Scully had nursed his sister back to them.

She was doing well, considering how long she had gone without human contact it really was amazing.  She was walking very well now, feeding and dressing herself.  Those things

she had long mastered when she’d been taken were coming back rapidly.  Talking was slower.  She had spent so many years without a spoken language, only telepathy, that talking

out loud just slipped her mind.  Fortunately that wasn’t as big a deal as it would have been, since all of the children could hear her and remind her to speak or pass along whatever she

wanted to say.

She was tall, taller than any other woman here.  Scully thought that was because she had spent so much time in a null gravity field and Mulder had no reason to dispute that.

She ate well enough now, but was still way too thin in Mulder’s opinion.  Mary had checked her out as well and determined that after all those years of being ‘fed’ only essential nutrients,

 her body was accustomed to that and in any case she was healthy.  Walt had seen to that.

She reminded Mulder of a large fairy, nearly insubstantial and always moving.  She would attend the classes with the children, not participating, just watching and learning at her own

 pace.  Then she’d jump up and head for the kitchen and watch that process for awhile.  Everyone knew to watch her, as she didn’t seem to remember hot was painful.  She’d spend

time with Maggie as she knit or crocheted in front of the fire, attempting to make the same movements with her hands and laughing at the outcome.

She loved the animals as well and seemed to communicate with them as she did with the children.  None of them shied from her or nipped her, even when the newborns had first

arrived.

Ah, babies, human and animal alike fascinated her.  Scully had told him that she didn’t believe she would ever have children of her own, in fact might never have reached puberty as

they knew it.  She was a year younger than Scully, but that was at the upper age of child bearing.  While no details had been shared with him, and, he was confident, a conversation

with Walt, it seemed a dead issue.  Not that he minded.  Women he loved giving birth was never going to be something he could just shrug off as normal.

Should he admit to himself that it was just as well he didn’t have positive proof that she was sleeping with Bill?  Nah, denial was a necessary evil.

Regardless she was home after a search and a belief of over 20 years, she was back to a place that had at least some happy memories for them both.  They could create a lot more

now.

He rose, dusting off his hands and headed back to bed.  He poked his head in Chrissy’s room just to check that she was covered and she looked up at him.  “You’re supposed to be

 asleep, young lady,” he whispered.

She grinned and held up her arms to be picked up.  “You know I’m spoiling you when I give in like this.”  She seemed undisturbed by this prospect and hugged his neck. 

Visions of he and Samantha playing down at the boathouse came to him; Samantha laughing up at him to be quickly replaced by nearly the same scene from yesterday, with Samantha

 laughing up at him when he teased her on the way to dinner last night.  She was happy and back with her family.

“Thanks Baby,” he rubbed his nose against Chrissy’s cheek.

She smiled and looked back down at her crib.  Chuckling he put her back down and covered her carefully, giving her one more kiss.  Then he headed back to Scully.