She looked in the mirror for the thousandth time. This couldn't be, and yet, it was. How would she tell Mulder? When? All she knew for now was that she needed to follow her doctor's orders and rest. Going out in the field was out of the question, for her safety and the baby's.

Dana Katherine Scully was having a baby at 54 years old, against all improbabilities and impossibilities in the world. She knew cases of women who got pregnant at that age, sometimes even older, but those women hadn't been abducted, hadn't had their ova harvested, hadn't gotten pregnant in spite of that, hadn't had a miracle baby, hadn't believed that said miracle baby was their last chance of having a family.

She picked up the phone to let Mulder know she had been to the hospital and she heard all the usual questions coming from the other end of the line: when? Why? Do you need me to come over? Do you want to come over? Do you need anything? Are you okay? What did the doctor say? How long do you need to rest for? She even heard the question he didn't ask: is there any chance it could be cancer again?

He knew better than to ask that, but she knew the question poked his mind sometimes. Hell, it poked hers too. Sometimes, she just wished for peace in her life, without all the stress of not knowing what was coming next for them. There was always something coming next.

She reassured him she was going to be okay, that she just needed to rest and be out of the field for a few days, until she knew it was safe. She heard him open his mouth to say something about the word she used, but he didn't make any other comments other than that he would drop by later to check on her. She smiled. It felt good to feel this loved again.

She put her phone down and couldn't help laughing at herself when she felt yet another sign of morning sickness. How had she not noticed? When she didn't get her period the first month, she thought it was a sign that menopause was coming for her and, quite honestly, she was ready to accept that that's what it was. She didn't worry, but she vowed to set an appointment with her doctor just to check if everything was okay. Well, now she didn't need to anymore.

She looked around her, wondering why the hell she had gotten such a large house for just herself. It felt too big, too spacious, especially now that Daggoo was gone and she had no one to share the house with. It didn't feel this big, this empty when Mulder came over, but he never stayed more than two nights in a row and, when he left, she was also left with the feeling of emptiness and loneliness that surrounded her daily. She wondered if that was what he had felt when she left him.

She sighed to try and shake the sad thoughts away as she walked by one of the spare bedrooms. It would make a good nursery – the right size, close enough to her bedroom, close enough to the other rooms in the house… it just needed a little painting and a little changing to make it cozier, but she could already picture a crib in there, a mobile hovering over it… She remembered William and how he loved that mobile over his crib and she didn't fight back the tears that inevitably streamed down her face, contrasting with the smile that suddenly made an appearance at the same time.

William.

She still had hopes of finding him. Maybe he would be comfortable enough to visit them one day when all this was over, and she prayed with all she had in her for this to be over soon. She couldn't take this heartache much longer without breaking her spirit. Would he ever think of her as his mother? She hadn't raised him, so she couldn't expect him to love her right away, or even care about her, for that matter. But she couldn't help hoping he would understand all she did was out of love, even though now she knew that his safety had never depended on her being around or not. If she had stood by him, things might have taken a different turn and she didn't like to think that maybe, in her haste to save her son, she had actually put him in more danger.

Her cell phone rang and she chuckled to herself before picking it up. Mulder couldn't really believe her when she said she was okay, could he? But when she took it out of her pocket, an unknown number was on the display.

"Scully," she answered in her usual tone.

"Dana, this is Monica Reyes. I don't have much time, but I need to talk to you. It's about your son."