The Emilys: Happily-Ever-After Story)
By RocketMan

Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox Productions.
No infringment is intended. I do not make money from this.

Summary: A fluff story about Libby's birthday and a more pronounced
conclusion. 

Rating: PG13....MSR
Spoiler for all of US5.

==========

"Scully, look. If you think this is going to end up as a
happy-ever-after story, you're incredibly wrong. It's not."
--Mulder, The Emilys, Chap. 6

==========

May 13, 1998
New York City

Libby ran in from the kitchen, holding her teddy bear in her hands and a
smile of rapture on her face.

"Daddy!" she shrieked and catapulted herself into his lap.

He grunted and shifted to keep her knee from digging painfully into his
thigh and turned her around to face him.

"Yeah, baby?" he said, his eyes distracted by the glow of the computer
screen. He had promised Scully he was going to spend time with the
family, but the search drew him, and he was online now.

"Guess what?" she said, moving her face to block his view.

He looked down at her, giving her his full attention. "I don't know.
Tell me."

"Mommy said my birthday is in a week!" she said, her eyes as huge as
moons.

"That's right. How old will you be?"

She looked down at her fingers and pulled each one up one by one until
they numbered four. "This many?" she said, faintly wondering.

"Yup. Good job Libby. How many is that?"

"Four." she said proudly, sure of herself now.

Her body wriggled until she slid off his lap and then ran back out of
the room again.

Mulder cast his eyes back to the computer, once again hating himself for
allowing it to eat up so much of his time, but needing to know what
happened to the children on the list. He had a feeling they were all
dead, but he needed to make sure.

Scully had not objected. In fact, Scully had not said a word about
anything since the other night. He wondered if she was sorry for what
they had done, or wishing they'd never even started the whole thing.

He shivered and pulled a blanket from the bed, encasing his shoulders in
it.

He hoped she did not regret it.

~~~~
May 19, 1998
New York City

Dana Scully gave her daughter another egg beater and allowed her to lick
the chocolate from its spokes. The pink tongue lashed out greedily and
Scully smiled, then poured the brownie batter into a pan. Libby had
asked for brownies for her birthday and little blue candles.

Scully glanced to the bedroom, where she knew Mulder was probably
working on the computer again. She had asked him not to, simply for
Libby's sake: she missed her father. But Scully missed him too. Ever
since that night, he hadn't done anything more at all. Nothing. She had
a sickening feeling he didn't want it anymore.

She knew he was sneaking around on the computer because he had lost
track of time again and hadn't come out from the bedroom in an hour. It
didn't take an hour to shower and get dressed - not for Mulder anyway.

Libby's hand snaked up and deposited the beater into the sink and Scully
glimpsed chocolate all over it. She turned and found her little girl's
face smeared with brownie mix and a silly grin of satisfaction coating
the lips.

"Oh, baby. You got it all over you." she said and took a washcloth up
from the sink immediately. Libby backed away, thinking her mother was
angry and pouted.

"Oh, no. You're not in trouble, Libby. Just let me clean you up."

As Scully was getting the last of it, Mulder walked in from the bedroom,
a triumphant look on his face. When he saw her cooking it disappeared.
"You haven't started dinner, have you?" he said, ruffling Libby's hair
as he drew up to them.

She shook her head. "Just making Libby's brownies."

He nodded with the grin back in place and she melted onto the spot.
"Good. I want my girls to go put on their best dresses, all right?"

She gave him a look of confusion. "Why, Mulder?"

He shook his head. "Just do it."

She took Libby's hand and shot another puzzled glance in his direction.
"All right. Just get the brownies out when the timer goes off, okay?"

He nodded and she led Libby to her bedroom to get ready.

~~~~

Scully sighed and closed her bedroom door behind her, letting Libby
continue her coloring on the small living room floor. She had finally
gotten her into a light purple and blue baby doll dress, with white hose
and shiny new Mary Janes that she really didn't want to wear but was
being forced to, even though it was her birthday.

Scully crumpled onto the bed and wondered where they were going, and why
it was so secret. She glanced at herself in the mirror and wondered if
she needed to take a shower, but ignored her reflection and decided to
simply was her face.

Water dripping from her chin, eyes squeezed shut, Scully groped around
for a hand towel, feeling the soap already start to burn into her eyes.
She felt the towel, and then the hand attached and yelped, jumping into
the air.

She heard a laugh and felt Mulder's hand reach out to steady her.

Dabbing her face, she looked up to see his amused expression.

She was already peeved with him for being on the computer on his little
girl's birthday, and confused and hurt because he had said nothing about
what had been happening between them, so she didn't feel all that
amused.

"Hey. You look tired."

She shook her head. "No kidding. Work was crazy.....haggarding."

His hand traveled to her neck and his fingers began easing the muscles.
She felt her whole body relax involuntarily and she kind of slumped
against the counter.

Her eyes eased close and she felt his arm circle around her and gently
pull her back to the bed. He laid her down and let his hands work across
her skin.

"This feel good?" he said.

"Mmm...." she murmured.

It was luxuriant. Like a million little air bubbles riding across her
skin and dipping her nerves into baths of numbness that were
intoxicatingly sweet and sensuous. She wondered where this had come
from. Weeks of his nothingness, his coldness, and then this. It was
almost if he had suddenly made up his mind about her.

She liked the decision.

When he finished, she mumbled something into the comforter and then
turned around to face him. "I couldn't possibly get dressed now," she
said with a sigh.

His amused grin made her stomach tremble and she looked away from his
eyes.

"I'll help you," he said and pulled her up.

He guided her to the closet and opened to door, then slid his hands
along her sides to pull her shirt off. Her arms raised and she melted
against his chest once her shirt was free. He tossed it on the floor and
then kissed her shoulders with tremors that belied his calm.

She wanted to turn to him, but he kept her firmly against him, back
against his chest. 

He then unbuttoned her jeans from the back, his hands slipped around her
waist and his arms warming her cool bare skin.

The jeans were then gone and he rested his hands on her hips, thumbs
brushing her upper thighs as he peered into the closet.

It took him eternally long to dress her in a black sheer skirt with tiny
white flowers and a black, fitted, short sweater. His hands were demons
burning across her and through her and she was sure her own lack of
control hadn't helped much.

They walked out of the bedroom and Scully saw Libby bound towards them
with eagerness.

"You look pretty, Libby," Mulder said and picked her up. She beamed and
looked nothimg like the pouting girl who had not wanted to wear her
shoes.

"Well, let's go, huh?"

"Where are we going, Daddy?" Libby said, hands resting around her
father's neck.

"You'll see."

==========

Mulder stepped out of the lobby of their apartment building and gestured
for his ladies to go to the waiting horse-drawn carriage. Libby had
dreamed of riding in one since they had arrived in New York and had seen
the stately and beautiful animals.

"Daddy! Daddy! It's a horse like in Cinderella!" she shouted, climbing
up on the step leading to the waiting carriage. The driver smiled with a
knowing grandfatherly look and Mulder helped Scully up the steps.

She looked at him in respect because she herself had forgotten Libby's
desire to ride in one.

Libby waved to the people walking past as they started but then was too
busy watching everything go by to wave anymore. Mulder kept close to
Scully, his arm wrapped around her waist as he had done so many times
before to keep up pretenses.

He was not merely keeping up pretenses tonight.

"Daddy, is this for my birthday?" Libby said, her eyes still peeled to
the streets as they went by in the carriage.

"Yes, baby. It's for your birthday. It's a very important thing,
birthdays."

Libby nodded gravely, as if he had made some profound statement on the
nature of things, and Scully supposed he had. Birthdays were important:
they reminded you that you were loved.

"Thank you very much Daddy, for my birthday," she said, glancing back to
him once to let him know with her eyes just how important this birthday
present was to her.

"You're very welcome, Libby," he said and threaded his hands down her
hair to get out a few tangles.

Scully took his hand back and leaned in close to him.

"This was very nice, Mulder. Something very special for her first
birthday with us."

He nodded and then smiled. "Well, she's my little girl. I wanted to do
this for her. For you."

Her eyebrow raised. "For me?"

"Yeah. You looked so tired all week, and I didn't help any.....I thought
you could use a nice relaxing day. I've been pretty selfish the last few
weeks, and pretty insensitive and the funny thing is, I don't even know
when I'm being that way. I thought it was something else entirely."

She sighed and sank into him, letting her very tired bones be reheated
by his warmth.

"Thank you Mulder."

He just put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

~~~~

They went to a new restaurant that had been getting good reviews in the
newspaper as a nice, sit-down place that catered to kids and their
families. Because Mulder had called ahead, Libby had 'Happy Birthday'
sung to her by the owners and the waiters and then a small piece of any
dessert they had. She chose a brownie and afterwards said it was not as
good as her mother's.

The place had an open air that was friendly and comforting and Scully
found that her headache had disappeared and she got up and danced with
Mulder and then Libby when the kid's music came on.

The menu consisted mainly of home-cooked type meals that kids loved and
adults would like. They had macaroni, one of Libby's favorites, and a
beef and red wine dish that was served in a huge bowl so that they could
sort of eat like they did at home, with each helping himself to whatever
he wanted.

Libby loved it and she was thrilled by something different constantly.
She had huge moon eyes and watched everything and talked about
everything until Mulder choked on some beef from laughing at her
silliness.

He didn't choke very badly, but it made Libby calm down a bit and she
sat in the seat and wriggled around, itching to get up and try all the
little educational set-ups that were more like toys placed around the
room.

It was like a huge McDonalds playground to Libby but with better food.
She fell asleep in the cab on the way home, talking with excitement
until the very end.

~~~~

"Mulder?"

"Yeah?"

They spoke in hushed tones as Mulder carried Libby upstairs to their
apartment.

"Should we wake her up for her presents?"

Mulder looked at her sleeping limp form and shook his head.

"Nah. Tomorrow morning we'll give them to her."

Scully unlocked the door and let them in to the apartment, closing it
behind Mulder as he walked quietly to Libby's room and laid her down.

He came back out with a soft, amused smile on his face.

"She was talking to me in her sleep," he explained. "I talked back,
thinking she was coming awake, but she was dreaming."

Scully smiled and warmed with the image, Mulder coming to sit beside her
on their futon couch in their very small living room.

He took her jacket off and laid it on the floor beside them, then drew
her close to him, arms fully encircling her.

She took in a deep breath of his smell, the faint smell of salt water
from the sea that always accompanied anyone she loved, her unconscious
mind imprinting her father onto everyone, and the distinctness that was
only Mulder. Of harsh sun and rainy wind and sensual cologne.

All of it rushed through her faster than bullets, striking her heart and
body like a shot.

"Mulder?"

"Yeah?"

"This was very very good. You did a great thing tongiht."

He sighed and shifted. "I wanted her to have that. She's my little
girl."

"Yes, but it's more than that. I guess I expected certain levels and I
got way more than I expected." She paused then took his hand. "I didn't
mean that to sound the way it did --"

"Yeah, yeah. Likely story." He grinned and she leaned her head once
again on his chest.

"What I meant was that I didn't ever expect to fall in love with you,
only with Libby, only with the idea of having a family."

His arm clenched tighter around her and he pressed his lips to her
forehead.

"It's not an idea any longer, Scully. We make it real. I want it to be
real."

She sighed: not exaclty what she'd been looking for, but almost.

"Yes, we are a family. I know that."

When she did not go on, he pulled away to see her eyes and found they
were closed.

"Why are your eyes closed?"

She smiled, but her eyes remained closed.

"I'm relaxing. Enjoying being next to you."

This hit him and he realized she was not simply talking when she'd said
she had fallen in love with him.

"You really love me," he said, a statement he knew now to be true.
Her eyes cracked open and she tossed him a brief smile.

"Yes."

"Well.....well.....that's great.....I....I'm lost." he said finally.

Her face grew soft and she touched his cheek.

"Don't worry. I've found you."

He tilted forward and kissed her lips, soft twin heartbeats that ached
with the blood of need, of love.

"Scully, will you be my wife?" he murmured into her hair.

She slid her body across the futon and closer to him.

"I already am."

He claimed his place with his hands across her skin and shuddered with
the beauty of what they were.

"Well, then. It's about time we got our happy-ever-after ending, huh?"

==========

"Here baby, hold this."

Libby took the toothpaste from her father and watched as he screwed
the cap on with one hand, then plucked it from her fingers and set it
back down.

"Thanks."

She nodded and rested her chin on the sink, her eyes lifting to the
mirror to watch her Daddy as he brushed his teeth with one hand and
shaved with the other.

He was late.

Libby's mother scooted in and grabbed a towel, then damp dried her
hair and brushed it out, manuevering with skill in their small single
bathroom with Mulder's big bulk taking up most of the room.

Neither one made Libby move.

Checking in the mirror to make certain of her appearance one last
time, Scully ran her fingers through her hair and then her eyes
strayed to Mulder.

He struggled to focus on not spitting out on his electric razor and
to shave his chin as best as possible.

And then Mulder's eyes strayed to the side and found his girls
staring at the process intently as he fumbled.

Mulder and Scully's eyes met in the mirror and she smiled shyly.

He turned and deposited his toothbrush back into the holder, then
grabbed for his little girl.

Balancing her on the toilet he handed her the razor.

"I'm not doing such a good job, Libby. Wanna help?"

Libby's mouth dropped open and she glanced up at him. "I can't do
it."

He chuckled at the roundness of her eyes. "Sure you can."

She made a feeble attempt to let it buzz down his cheek, then she
shuddered and pushed it back in his hands. "I don't want to hurt you
Daddy."

Mulder brushed a hand through her hair and nodded. "It's okay."

Then he winked at her. "Think Mommy would do it for me?"

Libby cast a sly look to Scully, as if it was just her and Mulder in the
little bathroom and her mother had no idea what was about to happen.

She nodded eagerly.

Mulder turned to Scully, and before she could say no, shoved the
electric razor into her hands and leaned back against the sink.

Waiting.

She stared at him a moment, then shook her head.

"Mulder, I --"

"Sure you can."

She stopped, glanced at him again and then sighed. "What are you
having problems with?"

His eyes seemed to glitter a bit and he turned his head to wink at
Libby.

"My chin. I can't get the right angle. I figured since you're so
short, you could get it."

She poked his stomach and held the razor mockingly. "I warn you.
Don't make short jokes when I'm holding a sharp instrument."

His eyebrows twitching, Mulder nodded solemnly, then put his hands to
her hips and moved her in front of him.

"Okay, now."

She reached out a tentative hand and steadied his head, her fingers
wrapping around her neck and her thumb sliding up his throat. 

The way his Adam's apple jumped made her feel a small thread of heat
ignite in her, and she tried not to look in his eyes.

She had to move in close though, in order to get the right amount of
pressure, and soon she was leaning against his chest, with his hands
placed solidly on her hips to balance her.

Concentrating intensely on his chin, she managed to push aside the
smaller things: like how her body responded being so close, and the
way he smelled of toothpaste and clean soap.

She finished and leaned a bit away, still in his arms, still close
enough.

He smiled at her suddenly flushed look and dipped his head to kiss
her nose.

"Thank you, Mommy," he whispered.

The words sent a spike of hot energy through her and she pushed away,
fussing with Libby and the razor and not looking in his eyes.

She was afraid of what she was letting this become.

==========

That night, Libby was put to bed with her moving bear and given a
long story about a prince who had a sword battle with the bad guy to
save the Princess Dana, and then Scully sat in on the last of it and
amended that the princess then had to save the foolish prince from
huge dragons all by herself.

Which made Mulder smile all the more.

When Libby nodded off to sleep, they snuck from her bedroom and into
the hallway, where he stopped her for a moment.

"Close your eyes."

She stared at him. "What?"

"Close your eyes. I want to show you something."

"I can't see anything if my eyes are closed."

He smiled and pushed his hand over her lids, the contact slow and
soothing, sending shocks through her.

When her eyes were closed, he kissed her lips with a brush of his
mouth, then led her back to their bedroom.

==========

"Mulder --"

"Almost there Scully."

She felt an odd sense of panic in her, almost like she didn't quite
trust him. It made her stomach sort of flutter and her hands sweat at
the realization that she never knew what Mulder was up to.

Then her knees hit the back of the bed and she sank down, face calm
as his hands squeezed her shoulders.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Not yet," he said and she could tell that his head was turned by the
far away sound in his voice.

Then he was kneeling right in front of her, his hands on her thighs, and
she could feel his stare as he watched her.

He took one of her hands, her left hand, and pried open her fingers
with gentle movements, punctuating each fingertip with a kiss.

It sent a heady rush through her body, claiming parts of her she
never thought she'd given over to him.

Then a piece of warm metal was placed in her palm.

"Open your eyes."

She felt her lashes graze her cheeks and she had a wild clutching
sort of feeling in her chest.

Her eyes fell to her open hand.

A gold ring lay nestled there.

She jerked up to see Mulder, to understand what he was trying to say
with this, to know where he wanted to go.

What were they letting this become?

He smiled and kissed her nose again, leaving her wishing he'd put
more faith in himself and aim lower.

As in her mouth.

"Read it," he said, his finger moving around the rim of the ring in
her hand.

She held it carefully, tilting it to see the inscription engraved
inside.

It made her heart hurt.

~~with love~~

Two simple words, etched in elegant cursive, speaking more than any
novel or story or planned out speech could ever say.

She couldn't speak, couldn't thank him the way she wanted to,
couldn't even breathe with the tightness in her chest.

"Put it on me, Mulder." she whispered.

His anxious expression fell away into tenderness as he carefully took
the ring and slid it over her finger, his own hands shaking.

She leaned forward and kissed his mouth with the same gentleness he
had shown as he laid his gift in her hand.

His arms slid around her waist and pulled her to his chest with an
underlying force that made her dizzy.

His mouth broke from hers. "I wanted to put your name on it, but I
couldn't take the risk that someone might find it. So I just said
what I needed to say ..."

Speaking it out loud seemed to make it real and he faltered, looking
away.

"I know, I know," she murmured, pulling him with her back onto the
bed.

"I want to make you my wife," he said and closed his mouth over hers.

The ring on her finger glittered and he could feel it pressed hard
into his back.

"Mulder ..."

She lifted his face to look at her, to make him meet her eyes.

"I want to be yours ..."

==========END==========