Title: Home: One's Heart is Where the Home Is



Author: Pattie



Rated: PG-17 for casefile content.



Spoilers: Home



Category:MA, SA, Post-Ep.



Summary: What must Scully have been thinking while 

investigating the extremely in-bred Peacock family?



Archive: Gossamer, any other nice home will do. Please ask



Feedback: Yes, Please!  Tell me how to do even better!

trish59@444.net



Disclaimers: Mulder, Scully, and The X-Files are all owned 

by Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and Fox Studios. I receive 

nomoney from this and I intend no copyright infringement.



Author's Notes: Several Quotes from the episode were used

without permission, and taken from a site called 

insidethex@co.uk. That being said, we all remember most of 

them anyway.





HOME, PENNSYLVANIA 





"Scully....I never saw you as a mother before." 



Yes, she had smiled slightly at the words. For the past 

few months, she felt closer to Mulder as a friend and could 

easily feel more than friendship, empathy, and loyalty. 

That massively deformed little being she had just examined 

reminded her very strongly that she wanted to become

a mother some day. Come to think of it, perhaps a child 

who looked like Mulder and had his heart wouldn't be that 

far-fetched. Tears streamed down her face that night as she 

said her nightly prayers.



"Dear Lord, please, please prevent even one deformed child 

from being conceived tonight. Please, help me to be strong 

during thistime, and bless the mother of that child. Heal her 

pain."



 

"... is there a history of genetic abnormalities in your family?" 



When Mulder had asked her that, she wondered if he was 

seriously sizing her up as a potential mate. The thought hadn't 

really crossed her mind before, but it didn't seem that displeasing 

when she really considered the possibility. She felt warm inside. 

"Could he be thinking... ?" She welcomed the possibility. There was 

something growing inside her heart, and it had been developing for some 

time, but she chalked it up to shared dangers, camraderie, friendship. 

This was definitely a start. He had never asked about her family history

 

before. It was flattering.





"... Well, just find yourself a man with a spotless genetic make-up 

and a really high tolerance for being second-guessed and start pumping 

out the little Uber-Scullies." 



Had he been speaking of himself? Of course. Was that a pass? 

Definitely! And she hadn't scowled at him, stomped off, told him to

shut up. Her soft side was showing, and he knew it. And when he said 

he had a family that passed genetic muster, that was appealing to her 

as a daughter of a military man (pass muster), and her hopes for a 

healthy child. It could also be construed as an outright advertisement, 

she supposed. Corrective lenses? Well, join the club. Tendancy toward 

alien abductions? Ohh, there was so much in common here it was a 

match maker's delight! But would she choose Fox William Mulder as a 

mate, father of her children and love of her life? Until this 

Peacock case, she had not considered things that profoundly 

about him. Especially about him.



She had explained to him that all humans have a natural instinct to 

propagate. That included her, but the scientific terms seemed so cold 

and clinical when applied personally. After all, there was her job, 

with its jargon. Then, there was Dana Katherine Scully, with her 

heart's desires as yet unfulfilled. And she longed to have a baby. 

Not as a duty to pass on her genes, but as a part of her life and 

that of a lover for life. This was her tradition as well as her 

need.She had so much love to give.



" You still planning on making a home here? " She had asked him.



" Not if I can't get the Knicks game." 



 "Well, just as long as a brutal infanticide doesn't weigh into 

your decision. Good night, Mulder."  Couldn't hurt to try to joke 

with him. He knew how much she wanted to settle down and raise a 

family some day, with some one. Could he be the one? Looked as 

though he might want the same thing some day, the way he had 

spoken about the fresh air and freedom from the trappings of the 

big city. Was he considering her as a mate??



"...Good night, Mom. " 



Was Mulder teasing her? Maybe he saw her as a mother after all this 

pain they had been through dealing with the murder of a grossly 

deformed child. As Scully went to her room after having told him his 

lock was broken, she sat and thought about how he made her smiled lately.

 

It felt good. The last time a man had made her smile with mere words, or

 

even just the thought of him, well, it had been a long time ago. Too 

long. This was a sign of... attraction. Way too early to think of it as 

anything else. That was only one buiding block toward love, she told 

herself. Enjoy it for now. Take your time.



The first day back at the X-Files Office, Scully was writing up the 

last note in her report. She was still thinking of the things that 

had happened in Home. That dedication toward family taken so damn far 

it was an abomination. The mother's love for her boys. Her own desire 

for a home and a child.



"Earth to Scully..."



She had been daydreaming about a turned on Mulder in the pig pen.



"Mission control wants the report in today."



"Sorry Mulder. I'm almost done."



"This case was really hard on you, wasn't it? I mean, the baby and

the Peacock's?"



"Yeah, yeah it was Mulder. But I think a saying I've often heard

applies here."



"What's that? Home is where the heart is?"



She grinned back at his smug expression. "Not exactly, Mulder.

I believe it can be turned around. I believe that with families,

babies and love, perhaps one's heart is where the home is."





                                  END



Pattie