Title: In Common Hours

Timeline: Alternate Events (Timeline)? Takes place in an imaginary time in an early season, soon after Scully's return, pre-cancer.

Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Chris Carter and 1013 Productions.

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I think it happened in Ohio.

Or maybe Kentucky. That's was the last stop on the case, the place where we ended up breaking the bed. Tangled naked together, trying to stifle our hysterical laughter at the thought of what exactly we'd have to put on the expense report when it came time to pay the motel for damages. The thought of Skinner's face when it came time to sign off on the charges and that was enough for Mulder who ended up selling his never-used golf clubs on eBay instead of putting us through that.

I thought our misadventures had ended there, but six weeks later it turned out I was wrong.

Two lines on the test. Bright pink, side by side, no mistake about it except that my mind refused to wrap itself around the impossible and insisting it was wrong, I took another which also came up positive. As did the five other brands I ended up purchasing from the drug store - blue boxes, red check marks, even a little digital readout that said one word: YES.

Yes. Miracles do happen, Doctor Scully. This isn't to say I was ready for it, I wasn't even sure how it could have happened. Mulder and I had been edging toward intimacy for three long years, a slow, steady drumbeat of two hearts that were joined in every way but one and when the inevitable came there was less a concern about babies than about our work, our true life.

Besides, I wasn't supposed to be able to have babies. They were supposed to have made very sure of that.

"Looks like they missed one," I muttered to myself, fanning out the multiple pregnancy tests in both hands. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, I settled on laughing until I cried, which was good enough.

The enormity of the situation didn't hit until a few hours later, lying in my bed (on my side, as lying on your back while pregnant isn't supposed to be good for a baby, except at the stage I was at then, our child wasn't more than a few cells big) and Mulder called, sounding infuriatingly normal.

"I think I've discovered the identity of that guy in Modina, Scully."

So hopelessly obtuse. "The guy in Modina?"

"You know, the one who ran off with the last set of files the Gunmen dug up for us?"

Files. Gunmen. A man in Modina and for the first time, I couldn't care less about whatever he was blathering about. Not that it was Mulder's fault - how could he be expected to be acting in any way but as he usually did, but I, like most other newly pregnant women before me was hormonally challenged and therefore not in the most rational state of mind.

So I sighed, told him I wasn't feeling up to discussing it right now and hung up.

I don't think I ever did that before. It took him at least twenty minutes to recover from the shock and call me back. "Are you okay, Scully? Is someone there?" he whispered in the phone, as if only a gun to my head could have possibly inspired me to brush him off. "Should I come over?"

I thought about it for a moment. Telling him over the phone wasn't an option, keeping it from him would be ... difficult. "Yes, I think you should come by. Can you be here in thirty minutes?"

The phone went dead a half second later, no doubt with Mulder racing over to rescue me. He was already at the door before I finished brushing my teeth and I greeted him at the door, toothbrush still in hand. "Sorry, let me rinse."

He looked around my apartment, confused. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes," I said, wiping my lips on a towel. I glanced at him, still standing in my foyer, his jacket askew from being yanked on, his hair mussed, framing a face that was both knowing and innocent, a suspicious demeanor that held nothing but trust for me in his eyes and my heart sank a little.

This wouldn't be easy for him. There were only certain kinds of unexpected Mulder was good at dealing with. This wasn't going to be one of them.

I took his hand and lead him to the couch. Sat him down and tried to smile but tears kept getting the way. The words were impossible to say so I did the next best thing -- handed him the clearest of the pregnancy tests and waited.

And waited. Waited some more and watched as his eyes widened hugely, then shut, then peeked open again to reexamine the little plastic stick in his hand. "How?" he finally asked, with a curiousity so honest, I couldn't be offended.

"I have no idea," I said thickly, gulping past a lump in my throat the size of a baseball. "I guess their sterilization techniques weren't perfected yet. Or, the human body is a greater mystery than we can imagine."

Mulder fell back against the sofa, the test still clutched in his hand. "Wow." Slackjawed, he stared at the wall. "I have no idea what to say, Scully. How ... " He hesitated, his cheeks paling. "How do you feel about this?"

The words choked me. "I don't know. It's such a huge thing."

He silently agreed. We sat for a long time like that, on the couch, apart, not touching, him staring off in the distance, me at the seam of his jeans. The seconds ticked by, feeling like hours before he finally snuck out his hand to grasp mine, squeezing it weakly. "It'll be all right, Scully," he said, but somehow, he didn't sound convinced. "We'll figure this out."

"There's not much to figure out," I snapped, instantly regretting my shortness of tone when he quickly pulled his hand away. God, this was not going to be easy. "Sorry, Mulder. I'm just ... I'm just tired. This has been quite a shock to the system. If it's okay with you, I think I'm going to bed."

"I understand." He glanced at me, his expression unreadable. "Do you want me to stay?"

I did want him to stay but for some reason, I wasn't sure if that's what he really wanted. There was a restlessness to him, a tightness to his shoulders and jaw, an unspoken agitation.

It would be better to let him go, I thought sadly, even though I ached to be held. To be hugged tightly and told everything was not only all right, it was wonderful, that this new life growing inside of me was a joyful thing, a moment to celebrate, not to regret.

But I wasn't sure that's how Mulder felt. I wasn't even sure how I felt but a tense, sleepless night wouldn't help either one of us. "I think I'd be better off alone tonight," I said, gamely trying to smile. "How about tomorrow?"

Not surprisingly, he looked relieved. "Okay." He leaned over to kiss me, our lips meeting briefly before I pulled away. "Tomorrow."

That tomorrow was a long time in coming, a sleepless night following anyway after Mulder left. I tossed and turned for hours until finally giving up a short while before the dawn.

Doodled on the computer aimlessly for a bit until opening my notes program, thinking to get some work done, which was a joke. The words that followed had nothing to do with work and everything to do with the new turn mine and Mulder's life had taken, an unexpected detour into the unknown.

Dear Little One,

Today is the day we discovered you, never to be the same again. May time give us all the strength we need to see this through.

Love,

Mama

Saving the file, I closed the program. Outside, in the distance, the sun was rising and I said one more prayer for us, once two, now three.

A prayer of hope, as well as a prayer of survival.

We would need it.

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to be continued in Chapter Two ...

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