From: dreamcole@hotmail.com Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 13:45:32 -0000 Subject: xfc: NEW : Breathe (Dream Series), MSR, S Source: xfc Title: Breathe Author: Dream Cole E-mail: dreamcole@hotmail.com Archive: Just let me know. Rating: PGish. Classifications: V, MSR (Okay, MSM), S Spoilers: None. Well, know that Scully was unable to bear children at one point and that she had cancer. This is kind of a continuation of the Dream Series, although it is quite obvious what happened. If you are interested in reading the others in the series, please e-mail me and let me know. Summary: Ever have one of those days...? Disclaimer: I don't own em. If I would, they'd be treated a lot better than they are being treated, believe you me! Notes: Okay, this is a result of me having THE lousiest week.. and it's just started. When I found out about Leyla I felt inspired to write something in her memory, and this came out. She was a fantastic writer and a great person, and fanfic will be different without her. Breathe It was the day from hell. Just when things couldn't possibly get worse.. they did. And then... they got worse. It started out not a big deal. I woke up shivering a million and one times during the night because my lovely wife and pulled the covers off of me. Okay, no problem. I can just roll her over, regain my portion of blanket, and go back to sleep. The fact that this happened many times didn't bother me. And it didn't bother me that she was sleeping on my part of the bed either, that's okay also. And, while waking up on the floor isn't my idea of a good time, I was okay with that. It wasn't anything I couldn't get over. But things kept building up. My daughter, who usually wakes up in a good mood, didn't. Usually I'll get out of bed, take a nice warm shower, find some coffee ready, and walk over to her room, where she'll be lying in bed, playing with the mobile above her bed. She'll see me, give me a big grin, and reach up for me, and then give me a big hug and I'll have a great day because that hug stays with me for most of the day. So I'll get my hug and then get my kiss from my freshly showered wife and everything turns out fine. But not today. I woke up on the floor. Great. As I fell, I took the alarm clock with me so the alarm didn't wake us up. Even better. When I finally got up, it was to my wife tripping over me as she got out of her shower, and I entered the bathroom to find cold water. So I finish my freezing shower in record time to find that our coffee maker has decided not to work anymore and have to settle for a soft drink instead. That's okay, it's still caffeine. I make my way to Dream's room, to find her utterly pissed off. She's teething and as a result, has not been a happy child for the past couple of days. She's lying there asleep, and waking her up is never a pleasant experience. So I try to wake her up soothingly, "Dream, honey, it's time to wake up. C'mon sweetie, let's get ready. Dream- dream, let's go? Wanna go find mommy?" She protestingly parts her long eyelashes to reveal her sparkling blue-green gems, and takes one look at me, scrunches up her face and starts working her lungs, screaming something fierce. I try to calm down, and then panic as my wife rushes into the room. "I didn't do it," I explain as Scully leans over and picks up our daughter. "I didn't even touch her!" I exclaim, as she rushes them out of the room. I follow them down the hall and watch in relief when I realize that my daughter is not being taken away from me and is instead being given a cold pacifier to suck on to relieve the pain in her mouth. The screams slowly stop and I can breathe again. I lean against the wall and close my eyes against everything, trying to take deep breaths. I feel two warm hands cup my cheeks and give me a soft kiss on my lips and I accept it, using it to make myself feel better. Then I feel a kiss on my forehead and know my wife must be really stretch on the tips of her toes to kiss me there, which makes me smile. I gave her a hug and she holds me close. We stand in the kitchen there for a little while, holding each other. Crying causes us to seperate and we dash to the living room to find our daughter with tears streaming down her cheeks. We look around to find out what upset her and see nothing. Then suddenly a white flash fills the room, followed by the loud rumbling that signifies thunder. The sound of rain hitting the windows fills the room and what was peace and quit only moments ago turns hectic when combined with noise from the storm, Dream's screams of anxienty and my wife rushing us to leave before traffic starts. The rest of the day was just a blur of bad news. We managed to get stuck right in the middle of traffic so I spent the ride to work listening to my daughters cries, the sound of the storm pelting our little green car and the two deejays on the radio talking about some nonsense. Then, to make it worse, due to the weather we couldn't go out in the field and were forced to do paperwork. By the end of the day I couldn't feel my hand, a direct result of having to sign my name on countless forms. I'm not sure if I even spelt it right at the end. Then, to make things better, I got chewed out for "going over the budget", which was "placed for a purpose" and as a result would be watched more closely. Oh goody. What next? Oh, how about the fact that my daughter had a birthday party to attend to in the evening? Yup. Scully and I had asked to work for only the morning in order to take Dream to this party. The catch was, Scully's mother needed to go to the doctors for a checkup and needed to take her daughter with her. Therefore, guess who got to attend a party for a bunch of one-year olds? That's right, me. The weather hadn't changed in the slightest so the half a dozen children had been indoors all day and would be stuck indoors for the rest of the day, meaning that they were not in the best of moods. After keeping hands away from presents, out of food and away from clothes, hair and body parts, the dull pounding that signaled a headache had already started and was getting stronger by the minute. I was only too happy to leave and drive Dream back home.... to find the house cold, dark, empty. Now, while I don't expect to have food prepared for me, that would have made things a little bit better. Especially since I am no cook, to say the least. But that's okay, I'm old enough to take care of myself. I don't mind that my day has been horrible. That all I want is my wife to take care of me, to give me a hug and tell me it's going to be okay, to fix dinner, to calm down Dream, who has resorted to pulling at my sleeves and howling in pain, soaking the edges of my shirt. I pull her close to me, and hold her, willing her to stop crying. Just when I contemplate actually crying with my daughter, the locks unclick and my angel of a wife walks in, I could almost see the halo shining above her copper hair. As she walks in, a delicious aroma wafts in with her. She sets down her bags in the kitchen, then walks back in the room. She hands Dream something to help her with her teething, then takes her child and gathers her in her arms. Then she snuggles up against me, squeezes me tightly. "Hasn't been a great day for you either huh? I got some Chinese takeout, thought we could use it." She murmurs above the sounds of Dream's quieting sobs. "It's getting better," I admit, as I gather her tighter in my arms. Suddenly, things are calm. The storm has quieted down, and there is just silence in the apartment. Holding my daughter and bride in my arms, I know that things are looking up already. I close my eyes and enjoy the moment, just as my wife says, "It's going to be okay." Notes: This was hard to write. I don't know why, usually it comes easy. Please, support and encouragement are accepted and appreciated. So is hate mail, but that doesn't really make my day, now does it? E-mail me at dreamcole@hotmail.com, or to receive other parts of "The Dream Series".