From: TedFan@aol.com   
      
   Title: Happily Ever After   
      
   Author: Marta Christjansen   
      
   Classification: Vignette/Romance/Humor   
      
   Rating: PG-13   
      
   Disclaimer: Not mine. Not for lack of trying.   
      
   Feedback: Is nice.   
      
   Spoilers: Post-series AU crossover   
      
   Author's Note: Alien colonization has been permanently averted and the Lone   
   Gunmen live (Krycek's still dead, though). Mulder and Scully have reclaimed   
   William, no longer work for the FBI, and are about to embark upon a normal   
   life. Yeah, right.   
      
   **************   
      
      
   "Unh …oh!"   
      
   Mulder took his gaze from the road stretching before them just long enough to   
   see the love of his life awaken with a jerk. She seemed surprised to find   
   herself in the front passenger's seat of an automobile speeding toward a   
   destination he had yet to    
   identify for her. "Have a nice nap … mom?"   
      
   Scully glanced into the back seat, where their 10-month-old son, William was   
   strapped securely into his car seat. Even asleep, he still clutched his   
   beloved, drool-stained, blue plush bunny by one bedraggled ear.   
      
   "Yeah, just great." She groped for a bottle of water, chugging about half of   
   it before pausing to ask, "Are we there yet?"   
   	   
   "Soon."   
      
   She glanced out the window, noting that they were on the outskirts of town. "I   
   missed the `Welcome to …' sign, didn't I?"   
      
   "Yup."   
      
   "Still not going to tell me where `there' is, besides California, are you?"   
      
   "Nope. All you need to know right now is that our destination is about as far   
   away from the FBI and the X-Files as it's possible to get without leaving the   
   continental US."   
      
   Scully sighed.    
      
   He knew she disliked surprises nearly as much as he enjoyed giving them to   
   her. Except for William, he thought. And her rings. He glanced at the two   
   rings adorning the third finger of Scully's left hand. The engagement ring   
   with its modest but flawless    
   single carat diamond in an old-fashioned green-gold setting, and the slender   
   green-gold wedding band had belonged to Mulder's maternal grandmother.    
      
   "Mulder, please tell me your taste in houses is better than your taste in   
   motels."   
      
   The corner of his mouth twitched. "I guarantee you will like this house,   
   Scully, even if it does lack the requisite white picket fence. "   
      
   "Two story Arts-and-Crafts house with four bedrooms, two-point-five baths,   
   living and dining," she recited. "Modern kitchen, spacious backyard -- Mulder,   
   is there a pool? I don't remember if you said there was a pool."   
      
   "No pool, Scully. But we'll sign William up for one of those baby swimming   
   classes just to be safe." He glanced into the rear view mirror and smiled at   
   his son, imagining him on his high school swimming team. Too bad I have to   
   wait a couple of years    
   before teaching him how to shoot hoops or hit a baseball.   
      
   "And there's still most of the unpacking to do. I got our bed and William's   
   crib set up, and our computers, in the spare bedroom, before flying back to DC   
   to get you and the little guy."   
      
   It had been Mulder's idea for them to drive back to California in a leisurely   
   fashion, so he could become reacquainted with his family after his recent,   
   enforced, absence. The baby had been an ideal traveling companion, content to   
   stare out the window at    
   the passing countryside from the security of his car seat or, alternately, to   
   sleep. He made no fuss at all unless he was hungry or wanted his diaper   
   changed.   
      
   Scully, never at her best traveling long distances by automobile, had been   
   less than excited by Mulder's unilateral decision to drive to the West Coast   
   but went along with his plan after insisting on doing half the driving. Except   
   for having William    
   along, it was almost like old times, when they were investigating odd-ball   
   cases for the FBI. Of course, they were staying in a better class of motel   
   now, too, although Mulder, after their first night on the road as a family,   
   had been renting two    
   adjoining rooms instead of a single. On their first night on the road, they   
   had been making love, perhaps too enthusiastically, when Mulder had noticed   
   that the baby was standing up in his collapsible travel crib, watching   
   wide-eyed as his parents made    
   the beast with two backs.   
      
   I hope we didn't traumatize the kid too much, Mulder thought, not for the   
   first, or even the 100th time. He also wondered if perhaps his own now-dormant   
   interest in adult movies had come about after catching his own parents in the   
   act as a toddler, and    
   if William, in turn, now would share dear old dad's proclivity for adult   
   entertainment.    
      
   They were entering a residential area. Mulder slowed the car and made a right   
   turn, then a left onto a pleasant street flanked by neatly kept homes.   
      
   "Looks like a nice, quiet neighborhood," remarked Scully. "Do we need to worry   
   about contracts, covenants and restrictions here, Mulder?"   
      
   "Nary a garbage monster in sight, Scully. I got my basketball hoop up as soon   
   as it came off the truck."   
      
   "So tell me more about this place."   
      
   "It's a small city, first settled by the Spanish. There's a nice mall with a   
   Starbucks and a multi-plex, a branch of the state university, and a pristine   
   beach. I'm thinking about taking up surfing, Scully."   
      
   "Do I get to call you Fish Boy?"   
      
   "Okay, forget surfing. There are bus and train stations, an airport, a zoo, a   
   museum--"   
      
   "Sounds almost too good to be true."   
      
   "--Forty-three churches and twelve cemeteries."   
      
   "Twelve cemeteries in a town this size, Mulder?"   
      
   "I told you it was an old city. Maybe they just start a new one when the old   
   one fills up. The school system is reputed to be very good. And," he added   
   with a kind of vocal flourish, "A brand-spankin`-new high school."   
      
   "What happened to the old one?"   
      
   He shrugged. "Blew up a couple of years ago. Gas main explosion, I heard."   
      
   "And that's where you'll be working, starting tomorrow, at this new high   
   school."   
      
   "Teaching psychology and coaching the swimming, baseball and basketball teams."   
      
   "Since when do high schools offer psychology?"   
      
   "It's a college prep course with a limited enrollment."   
      
   "So it won't take away from the more important work of coaching."   
      
   He grinned. "Scully, you know me so well."   
      
    He brought their car to a stop in front of a comfortable-looking older house   
   with a flower garden and a pine tree and a couple of deciduous trees growing   
   in front of it.   
      
   "Is this it?" asked Scully. She sounded … surprised.   
      
   "Yeah," said Mulder, killing the engine and leaning over to look out the   
   window with her. "What do you think?"   
      
   She turned to find his face hovering inches from hers. A moment passed as they   
   gazed at one another in unspoken communication. Broad smiles spread across   
   both their faces. In the back seat, William awoke and made smacking noises.   
      
    "It's feels like home, Mulder."   
      
   "That's what it felt like to me, too. So," he waggled his eyebrows   
   lasciviously, "do I get a reward?"   
      
   Scully pecked him on the lips. "Here's my marker. Claim the rest of your   
   reward tonight."   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)