By mutual consent nothing was spoken of aloud in the car or at the office, but they continued to experiment with their newfound abilities. They found they were unable to read the other’s mind, but could "send" messages. Receiving seemed to be automatic, but there was a slight effort with the sending. With continued practice they were able to "see" through the other’s eyes and "hear" the conversation when in a send mode. He promised that his next visit with the Lone Gunmen would include her for questions that he didn’t know to ask.
That night in bed as she lay in his arms, she said, "I made an appointment with Skinner for tomorrow."
"Why did you do that?"
"I have to take a leave of absence, I’m going to be gone for months. I’m going to ask for a sabbatical, time to get my head straight."
"Are we suppose to be having problems?"
She smiled at him, "Wouldn’t hurt. Skinner would certainly find it plausible that I needed a ‘break’ from your type of work."
"All the time not knowing that you’re even more involved in it than I am?" She pulled on his chest hair.
"Wanna trade?"
"No thanks, that’s too weird even for me. Besides, I’ve done my part, remember?"
"Child’s play. The real fun is ahead." He drew her more closely to him.
"Do you have to do this so early?"
"You knew by looking at me. I work with, supposedly, the most observant people in the world. I can’t take any chances. Have you come up with any ideas?"
"One, I need to check some things first."
"Like what?"
"Well, it turns out I own a cabin in Virginia. It was my grandmother’s. I haven’t been there in years. I didn’t even know Dad had held on to it, but he left it to me and I haven’t done anything about it. I need to see what kind of shape it’s in. I know it used to be secluded and I’m sure it would need a major cleaning, but it’s close, relatively. I could be there every weekend and during the week some too, especially later."
"Planning on taking semi-retirement?" He grinned and nodded. "That could be ideal. Not many people around?"
"I don’t have a clue. I thought I’d go down this weekend and give it a look."
"I’ll go too."
"It would be too dirty. Let me do some cleaning before you come down."
"You? Clean? Like your apartment, maybe? I’ll come. On a more serious note, I went through the information you brought from Byers. Is he. . .are you sure of the data?"
"Yeah, he’s always very accurate. Why?"
"I’d like you to take him a sample of my blood. I’ll draw it for you, but it’s important."
"I don’t like the sound of this. Is this what you’ve been not talking about all day? Are you all right?"
"I didn’t think it showed. I’ll know more when he finishes his analysis."
"Are you not going to tell me?"
"There’s nothing to tell until I get more information. What I have seems to be either misinterpreted or just plain wrong, if you trust his work. Just take him the blood and ask him to do a full analysis and leave me out of it. I’ll explain everything when he gives you the information. I promise."
The next morning Mulder was handing the blood sample over the Byers. "Mulder, where did you get this? You can’t mean the woman’s alive? That’s not possible."
"What do you mean, not possible."
"It never occurred to us we were doing an analysis on someone alive. How are they maintaining her? Total life support?"
"No, she’s not showing any symptoms other than pregnancy." The three Lone Gunmen exchanged glances then turned back to Mulder.
"She’s a wonder of science, man! What in all hell could be keeping her alive?" They began jabbering to themselves and finally noticed Mulder, pale and still off to himself. "You okay, man?"
"Why did you assume she was dead?"
"The amount of toxins, Mulder, haven’t you been paying attention? Nobody could live with the chemicals we’ve found floating around in their bloodstream."
{Scully?}
{I should have warned you. Let them do their analysis, meet me at my apartment}.
What did she know? His mind was racing, what else was she keeping from him? God, how could he live if his child killed her? He arrived at her apartment only praying that he hadn’t hurt anyone in route, because he had no memory of the trip.
He burst in, as though he expected her to be dead on the floor. "Explain it to me!"
"I can’t explain what I don’t understand, Mulder. I don’t know why I’m alive, unless the baby is keeping me that way to protect himself."
"You have to get rid of it Scully. You can’t endanger your life like this."
"Mulder, listen to me. The baby is, I believe, the only reason I’m alive right now. If he were taken from me, suddenly, I’d die. I can’t prove that, but the tests Byers ran. . ."
"Scully!"
"I feel fine. I am not lying to you about this, Mulder. I am either being shielded from this or Byers is 100% wrong. I don’t believe the latter is the case. The pregnancy needs to progress as normally as possible. My blood pressure is fine; my weight gain has been negligible so far. If you don’t do the blood chemistry everything looks normal. I don’t know what an ultrasound would reveal, but I am not going to have one, so that’s a moot point anyway, because we know when conception occurred. Vitamins are another matter and I have decided not to take any, just to eat as healthy as I can. You have to trust me on this, Mulder. I will do everything in my power to deliver a healthy baby and survive the process. If that is not possible, I need you to protect the baby from the factions that would try to take him. Can you promise me that?"
He closed his eyes and leaned back so that his head lay against the back of the sofa. "Mulder, if you can’t do this, I need to know now. I need to make arrangements for the baby’s and my protection."
"No, I’ll do anything you need. It’s just…" he shook his head. "I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you again."
"Maybe you won’t. He can obviously do things we don’t understand; maybe he can save me, when the time comes. I just have to believe he will." He held out his hand and she joined him on the sofa, enveloped in his arms.
"You so sure it’s a he?"
She nodded against his chest. If she were that sure, then it was a boy. It was almost as though she were communicating with him.
By mutual consent, the subject was not discussed any further that night, but they slept clutching each other, afraid not to be touching.
Her meeting with Skinner the next morning was anti-climatic. Mulder did not attend physically, and Skinner, while unhappy to be deprived of Scully’s expertise, even for a short time, seemed to understand her need to be away from the X-files. His only request was that she not close any doors about returning to his area when her sabbatical ended.
"That is difficult to promise, Director Skinner. "
"I realize how hard it could be to work with someone like Agent Mulder, with your background in the real world. . ."
{Snort!}
{Stop that, I have to concentrate}
"…and hard science, but you’ve done an outstanding job these past five years and we really need you to keep his feet on the ground."
"I appreciate your confidence in me, Sir, and I will give the position every consideration."
"You really have to take this time now?"
"Absolutely, that is not negotiable, but I will be in touch later to see if you have a position when I am ready to return."
"I’m going to miss you, Dana. I really hope you do decide to return to this area. Let me know if I need to expedite anything for you."
She nodded and returned to her office. "So you were suppose to spy on me AND keep my feet on the ground? Hope they were paying you double."
"Ha, for what I’ve put up with triple wouldn’t be enough."
"Like what?"
"Well, fluke man comes immediately to mind."
"A few trivial annoyances. Look at all the wonderful things you’ve learned with me."
"Insanity run deep in your family? Should I be worried?"
"I just hope they don’t try to stick me with another partner. The last pairing was. . ."
"No, don’t think about that. Put anything you think is mine in a box, will you, and I’ll go do the paperwork in Personnel. See you at home later."
He couldn’t help but smile, "home".
He was waiting for her at her apartment that evening. "Well, you’re looking at an unpaid, unemployed, unmarried pregnant woman. How far I’ve come in this world."
"Completely unpaid?"
"That’s the part you hear? No, I have several weeks vacation I’m going to use and my insurance will stay in force. And if I return I’ll be reinstated at my present level, Skinner did that for me."
"Quit saying if, okay?"
"Yes sir. Can’t wait to try and locate day care for this one. . ."
He grinned at her, "Oh, for the record I did hear everything you said and I have an idea how to help."
"I was kidding, Mulder. I don’t need your money, unless you plan to charge me rent for your place in Virginia."
"Not that part, the unmarried part." He waited for her to look up at him.
"What?"
"Well, damn, I’ve never done anything like this before, do I really get down on one knee?"
"You do and I’ll kick it out from under you. Mulder, no, I. . . no, that’s not our relationship."
"You’re carrying my baby." {We don’t know that} He chose to ignore her, "and you’re my best friend in the world, and now we know {stop} Why? I want to marry you, I want to wake up next to you forever and I want to be part of your life."
"You are and always will be part of my life, but I won’t let you marry me just because I made a bad joke."
"That had nothing to do with it, other than give me an opening. At least think about it, Scully. Don’t shut me out completely. I’ll ask again when you’ve had some time. My mother would be thrilled, she likes you better than she likes me already."
She tried to set the table, but they both noticed her hands were shaking. "Did I cause that?"
"Mulder, I. . .please don’t bring this up again. I can’t handle it right now. Besides, I have to call my mother tonight and I don’t need. . ."
"I’ll get back to you on it later."
After supper, while he cleaned up she got her mother on the phone and began explaining to her about the sabbatical when her mother broke it, "Are you and Fox squabbling again? I swear I wish you two would admit how much you love each other and stop this."
"Mom?"
"I’m serious! If you could only see the two of you from my perspective you would realize what is going on and stop the bickering."
"I beg your pardon?"
"What you really need to do it find a bed and. . ."
"Mother!"
"Do you think I’m so old that I can’t remember what a good sex life can do for you?"
"I am not going to have this conversation with you. I can’t. . . listen, I need to do some packing. I’ll give you a call next week."
"Think about what I said and don’t be gone too long. You two need to find a way to work this out and running from it isn’t the way."
"I. . . I will think about it, Mom. You’ve caught me off guard and I’m not sure. . . I’ll give you a call in a few days. I love you."
"I love you too, Dana and I want you to be happy. Be careful, and I’ll talk to you soon."
She replaced the phone and sat staring at it. Mulder came into the living room drying his hands and caught sight of her expression. "She bought your story and wants me out of your life completely, because I cause you so much stress, right?"
"Not exactly." She looked up at him, totally bemused, "She thinks I ought to jump your bones."
Mulder stared at her in disbelief, and then a grin appeared on his face, "You know, I have always liked your mother."
She grabbed the wet towel from his hands and threw it in his face. He followed her into the bedroom and she smiled as his arm snaked around her. "Don’t you know you should always do what your mother tells you."
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