===========
The Emilys
Letters
===========

"Sit still, Libby."  

The little girl wrinkled her nose as the brush passed through her
light blond hair, snagging on tangles as it went.

She squirmed again and made a face and Scully sighed, clamping her
legs around Libby to keep her from moving so much. Her hair only
tangled more when she didn't sit still.

"Libby? Scully?"

"In here, Mulder." Scully turned and saw him appear in the
doorway, then approach their bedroom with a gaunt look on his
tired face. She sighed and let Libby run to her father.

"Daddy!"

"Hey baby." Mulder took the brush from her and expertly combed out
her hair until there were no tangles and it shone in the bright
light. Libby did not squirm once.

He set her down on the bed and gave the brush back to Scully,
looking at her with subtle hints in his eyes. She nodded softly to
his unasked question and took out the barrettes for Libby's hair.

She sat patiently this time while her mother pulled her hair back
and clipped it securely with the animal barrettes. Then she was
done and she slid off the bed to go get on her pajamas, dropping
the towel in the floor with total abandon.

Mulder gave a little laugh and picked it up as she fled, hanging
it on the rack before coming back to sit down next to Scully on
the bed.

"Did she just get finished with her bath?"

Scully nodded, too exhausted to really answer and collapsed onto
the bed. Mulder's hands found the sore spots on her back and his
fingers dug in hard to relax them. She moaned and closed her eyes.

"How was work?" he asked and she knew then that he was upset over
something. He didn't ask how work was usually; he knew it was
painful to talk about and that she'd come to him.

"Scary." she murmured. "What's wrong?"

He snorted. "Sheesh, you've been around me way too long."

He was only evading the question.

She sighed and fell silent; it was enough that he knew she was
ready to listen to him. His hands continued to work their bliss
upon her body and soon, she was so relaxed she was numb.

He stopped and gave her a small kiss on her lower back, his lips
tantalizing the heated skin.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said and she felt the bed shift
as he got up.

"Mommy?"

"Yeah, baby?" she called back, moving her head so that she could
speak without getting a mouthful of the bedspread.

"Can you help me?"

"Sure baby." Scully dragged her weary body off the bed and waved
Mulder back to his shower. He'd been prepared to wait and go help
Libby instead.

But Libby had called for her. 

She would come.

She got to Libby's room and stood in the doorway. "What's wrong,
Libby?"

Libby looked up at her with muddied green blue eyes and shook her
head with a small smile. "Nothing. I have those papers ..."

Scully mentally slapped herself. Of course, the extra work her
preschool teacher had sent home.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry baby, I forgot. Do you want to do them in Mommy's
room and wait for Daddy to finish his shower?"

Libby looked at the clean white worksheets, a daunted look coming
over her face. "Yes." she said softly.

Scully picked up the pile of clothes from the floor and threw it
in the dirty clothes basket, shaking her head because Libby was
turning out to be just as messy as Mulder.

"Come on then," she said and led her back to their room, the
little girl skipping ahead in her bright blue pajamas.

She settled Libby in the floor with the long wooden board from an
old drawer that they used for a makeshift desk and then tapped on
the door to the bathroom before going in.

"Scully? Is that you?"

"Any other woman come in here while you shower?" she said lightly,
smiling.

His head peeked out from behind the shower curtain and he smiled
at her softly, the drops sliding down his back like raindrops on
car windows.

"No takers yet," he replied and raised his eyebrow a bit.

She shut the door behind her and the steam stayed inside, giving
him back some of the warmth. His eyes took in her worried
expression and fatigued face and he leaned forward, placing a kiss
on her nose before slipping back into the recesses of the shower.

"Libby's preschool teacher sent her home with extra work.
Apparently she's behind the others ..."

Mulder frowned and his eyes glanced to the door that led to the
bedroom where Libby was.

"She needs us to help her, Mulder ..." Scully didn't know quite
how to ask him for anything, even now. She just had to hope he
wanted to do it, otherwise she couldn't force him to.

"I'll be out in a few minutes, Scully. Then we'll help her."

Scully sighed. "Yeah. Okay." She turned to go, but he caught the
edge of her shirt, no doubt soaking it, but she didn't care.

"Scully," he said softly.

She looked back at him.

"It'll be okay." His words barely made it to her ears before his
lips descended on hers and brought the breath from her into him.

He pulled back silently and was back in the darkness of the
shower.

She shivered as she left the warmth of the bathroom and remembered
his lips on hers even as the cold swept against them greedily.

===========

"Okay, Libby, what's this one?"

"A," she said dully.

"You know that, huh?"

Libby's eyes sparked and she grinned. "Of course, Daddy. It's the
alphabet. Mommy taught me the alphabet Before."

To Libby, time was always divided into Before and Now. Before was
all the old things she had seen and done and felt and heard and
said. Before was her other Mother, her father, or Sir, and the
endless doctors and treatments.

Now was her family -- her new family.

"Okay. What are you supposed to do here?"

Libby proudly spread out the worksheets, the pages already limp
and smudged from being handled so much. She pointed to the first
one. "Here, I have to trace the 'A' and the little baby 'a' until
I can do it without the dots. Ms. Penn said I could use any color
I wanted."

"Oh. Wow. What color are you going to use?" Mulder asked, rubbing
Scully's back as he spoke. Scully let him control the impromptu
interview, knowing he was best as fishing around. Mulder could
find out why Libby didn't work as well as the others, why she was
falling behind.

"Um ... red. 'A's are always red."

Mulder nodded as if that was a proven fact and he was incredibly
remiss in forgetting it.

Libby managed to trace the outlines of the 'A' very well, her hand
steady and smooth, the letter taking shape very nicely as Mulder
and Scully watched.

And then she stopped.

"Now I have to make them on my own, without the dots." Her face
wrinkled up, eyes squinting and nose cutely displayed.

"Wow. Without the dots." Mulder carefully displayed no emotion
over the idea of making the letters all on her own. Libby would
get her signal from him and if he said they were easy and she had
trouble with them, then she would be too frustrated. On the other
hand, if he said they were hard, she might not even attempt it.

"But I can do it," she said confidently.

Mulder said nothing.

Her hand began the first leg, shaky with nervousness he supposed,
and then it faltered as she went and made the second leg, her hand
careening from the lines of the tablet.

Her eyes grew hard and flinty and she dug the crayon into the
paper, looking as determined and stubborn as Scully with her face
cold like it was.

"Daddy," she said, the word coming in clipped tones.

Scully stared at her.

"Yes."

"I can't do it Daddy. I don't want to do this anymore," she said
and flung the crayon across the room.

It left a long angry red dash on the wall.

Mulder looked calmly back to Libby, but the anger was there and
his eyes turned pleadingly to Scully.

Scully took Libby's arm firmly and made her look straight into her
eyes.

"Libby. Do not throw things. You're having trouble making your
letters, but getting mad doesn't help. You will not throw anything
else, understand?"

Libby's wide eyes stared back at her mother and wordlessly she
nodded.

Mulder shot her a grateful glance, knowing he was too frustrated
to handle it properly. Maybe that's where Libby was getting it.

"Now, Libby, we're going to do the rest of this. When we're
finished, you will help me clean the wall to get the crayon off."

Libby nodded again, swallowing thickly and her eyes tearing up.

It ripped at Scully's heart. She slowly eased away and then
pointed at the red crayon lying on the floor. Libby scampered to
pick it up quickly.

"Okay, Libby, let's do this again," Mulder said, carefully toning
his voice so that she would not hear any sign of impatience.

Libby began tracing again and finally she made a rather shaky and
untrained letter 'A' within only ten minutes.

Scully watched as she struggled to simply make the letter straight
and wished she could do it for her, get everything out of the way
so she could enjoy the rest of the day.

Libby's tongue peeked out from her lips and she licked them while
she tried to concentrate, but her small fingers would not obey
properly and the more she tried the more frustrated she grew.

But she would not give up: there was too much stubborn Mulder and
Scully blood in her to give up.

And then Scully realized what was probably wrong.

===========

Mulder looked up from his careful watch, his eyes pleading with
hers to help his little girl. It hurt him that Libby could not do
it.

Scully stood and picked Libby up, taking her to the bathroom
counter and setting her there. The mirror greeted them and she
saw Mulder approach behind her.

"Okay, Libby. I'm going to hand you some objects, and all I want
you to do is take them from me, okay?"

Libby nodded, enjoying the short break even though her mother was
acting strangely.

Scully picked up the brush and handed to her, carefully
positioning it so that it came at her from the middle, not
slanted in any way.

The little girl took it and smiled.

Scully smiled back and handed her a comb.

Left hand again. Left hand. 

Scully took the comb back and then grabbed her hands and placed
them in her lap, both resting on her legs and positioned equally.

Scully let go and then said, "Libby, raise your hand."

She raised her left hand with a little grin, thinking it very
funny all these things her mother was doing.

Scully smiled. "Okay. That's great Libby."

Scully took her down from the counter and looked at Mulder. "Did
you notice that?"

Mulder looked to Libby, then back to her. "No."

"Libby is left handed." She placed the girl on the floor again and
settled down next to her. "Libby, try doing the letters with your
left hand."

Libby picked up the red crayon with her other hand and grasped it
tightly, watching it almost.

Then she began tracing the 'A' again, her lines smooth and clean
and easy. She laughed with delight and made the letter on her own.

"I did it!" she yelled and jumped up.

Scully smiled widely and hugged her as her beautiful grin became
infectious. Libby ran to Mulder and received another huge hug and
kiss. 

"Way to go, Libby," he said and held her tightly. "Let's finish
the others now, all right?"

Libby sat back down again and soon she was completing 'G' and
smiling brighter than he thought possible.

Mulder leaned against the bed and pulled Scully to him, thumbs
digging into her sore and tense muscles. He let his hands drift
and she melted against him, draped over his raised knee like a
doll. She moaned once and Libby looked up with a wary expression.

"Did you get hurt, Mommy?"

Scully laughed and felt her ribs get bruised because of Mulder's
knee but his fingers felt too good to make her move. "No, honey.
My back is just sore and Daddy's making it better."

Libby nodded and returned to her letters, her tongue hanging out
as she concentrated on making her 'K' very neat.

Scully turned her head to see Mulder grinning inanely at her and
she rolled her eyes.

He leaned in closer and whispered, "You want me to make it a
little better?"

She shivered and raised up, eyes locked with his. "Right now?"

"If you want?"

Scully turned to see Libby working diligently. "Libby, do you want
to finish that in your room?"

Libby looked up, saw the funny look in her mother's eyes and
frowned. 

"Are you sleepy Mommy?"

Scully blushed. "Not right now, Libby."

Libby looked again at her mother. She certainly looked sleepy, her
eyes heavy and face flushed.

"After I finish can I watch my video?"

"Sure, baby."

Libby had a VCR in her room because her room was the only one with
a television plug and cable extension. Libby jumped up with her
things and ran for her room, slamming their door behind her.

Scully turned back to Mulder, watching the laughter in him
explode.

"So smooth, Scully," he said, grinning.

She shifted in his embrace and turned back to him. "Are you going
to finish rubbing my back?"

His hands dug immediately into her back and she moaned again, more
to irritate him than anything else. He leaned against her back to
push harder and she arched a bit under the pressure.

"Okay, okay. Too hard," she said, twisting.

He eased her back and into his chest, wrapping his arms around
her. His nose buried into her hair and she knew that he did not
want to make love; he wanted to talk.

She pressed her cheek against him, waiting, listening to his heart
as he thought carefully.

"Scully ... I think someone found us."

She stiffened like lead had been jammed into her spine, the easy
relaxed nature of her world suddenly spiralling into hell. 

"Why? What happened?"

"I found a listening device in my office," he whispered, his mouth
next to her ear so that nothing they said could be picked up.

She remained silent.

"It wasn't there yesterday," he added.

She shuddered, her mind replaying all the horrors she thought she
had left behind as soon as they had gotten settled in New York
City.

She turned her head and put her lips to his ear. 

"You're still as paranoid as ever, Mulder. I'm glad though -- I
would never have thought they'd come after us. I wish they would
just leave us alone."

He nodded. "I know. I can't help being paranoid, you know that.
Too many things have happened to us. I don't want to lose this
because I was careless."

She shivered again and let him keep her close to him, needing his
warmth and comfort just as much as he needed to make sure this was
still real.

"I'm going to search the apartment tonight for more bugs. I'll
help you debug your work too, as best as we can."

Scully nodded again and closed her eyes. 

He hugged her and kissed her, letting her know without words that
everything would be all right, letting her know because she needed
something to keep her sane.

"Okay," she said softly. "So they know. They know. We can go away
again, go to Chicago or Atlanta, or something."

He nodded, realizing that she needed this kind of planning to be
secure. 

"Or we could move to another part of the city. Keep Libby in
school and they won't get very suspicious, too. Won't try to hunt
us down or anything."

Mulder nodded again.

She turned to him then, crying silently, pressing her face
shamefully into him.

He let her cry and said nothing.

Because they would truly be all right.

Libby called out then.

"I finished my letters!"

Scully let out a little laugh and looked at him.

"She's done." 

"We're going to be okay." he said again.

She nodded.

They were.

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