Title - Beginning Communication 101 Author - Donna Email address - donnah@pop.uky.edu URL - www.geocities.com/Area51/Quadrant/4571/ Rating - PG-13 Category - MSR Spoilers - Three Words Keywords - MSR, angst Summary - The look on his face after Langly's comment inspired this one and kept me awake until I got it down. Feedback - Please Disclaimer - Mulder, Scully, the Lone Gunman and Skinner all belong to Chris Carter, 10-13 and Fox. No infringement intended. Beginning Communication 101 He watched her approach him from her kitchen. He wouldn't say she was waddling - he wouldn't even if he could, that was an invitation to a bullet between the eyes. But she did have a slightly backward slant to her posture, to offset the weight she now carried up front. She joined him on the couch with a small sigh and toed off her shoes, bringing her feet to rest on the coffee table. Then she looked over and smiled at him. His own face remained serious. "Scully, I know I've put this off, avoided it, but . . . who is the father?" There, he had said it. She straightened up on the couch and removed her feet from the table. "You certainly have put this off. Why ask now?" "What Langly said, about the 'blessed event'. He thinks, hell, all of them think it's mine." She didn't respond though he watched the eyebrow rise to dangerous heights. "I know the in vitro didn't work, at least with me. So I assumed you had found someone and continued trying - " The impact of the palm of her hand against his cheek rendered him speechless. His fingers replaced her hand, feeling of the stinging, reddened flesh. "I think you should leave." "Scully, no, don't ask that." She saw the look of fear, no panic, as he glanced at the door, but she didn't care. She rose from the couch as swiftly as she was able and stood looking down at him. "I asked you to go." "Scully, I can't. Please - " "If you think you're that easy to replace in my life maybe I should try." She turned away from him then, and moved toward her bedroom. He was in front of her in two steps, his hands gripping her upper arms. He stared down at her, looking deep within her. "Oh my god." Scully's phrase, but it was the only one that fit. "It is mine." She still said nothing as he pulled her against him, holding her in firm but gentle arms. His heart resumed a normal rhythm when her arms finally encircled him. "Scully, I'm sorry. I was too afraid . . . I should have been here. I didn't . . . I want to go with you to your next doctor's appointment. I want to know everything." She pulled away slightly then. "I'm not under a doctor's care at present. I'm taking care of myself. My blood pressure is fine, weight gain, all of that." "Scully?" She seemed to crumple slightly in front of him. "There was no one, no one I could trust." He felt the shudder that traveled through her body. "You need to be off of your feet." He led her back to the couch and seated her, settling her with a pillow at the small of her back. Then he sat beside her pulling her feet into his lap and began to massage them. "What are you doing?" "Beginning penance." She managed a small smile at that. "Talk to me Scully. What happened?" She took as deep a breath as she was able at stared at his hands. ***** "I woke up in the hospital. I don't know how I got there." Her feet were forgotten in his lap as they gripped hands. His free hand resting on her thigh. "Agent Doggett was beside me, watching over me." She was gazing at her swollen belly and missed the look of dismay those words caused to flit across his face. His place, another man in his place watching over her. He held his tongue about the amino. He wondered if the guys would be able to find it. All of his fears had boiled to the top - her abduction, the cancer, the second implant and the vaccine he had administered to her - and that was just on her side. His own included his vaccine from Russia and of course the encounter with the artifact that had lead to near madness and brain surgery. She was a doctor, all of these things had already occurred to her. "I'm sorry Scully. I should have been here. But I'm back now; I'm here, where I want to be. We're together." His grip tightened and she responded with a squeeze of her own. He was here; she wasn't alone anymore.