From: "tuatha" Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 21:47:59 +1000 Subject: NEW: Dill Waters Run Deep (1/1) by tuatha Source: xff Dill Waters Run Deep By tuatha tuatha@bit.net.au Category: MSR, Babyfic. (Hopefully not too schmoopy on either count. : ) Rating: Kiddie safe, PG at the most. Spoiler warning: For TXF in general, and Existence in particular. Feedback: would be appreciated if you have the time and inclination, and I'm happy to hear constructive criticism and comments as well as anything you do like about the story. Archive: Scullyfic Improv Archive, Ephemeral okay, Gossamer okay, anywhere else by request. Disclaimer: The X-Files, Mulder and Scully and all other characters from the show belong to CC, 1013, and Fox and are used without permission. No profit is intended from their use. Author's note: Huge thanks to Marasmus for her continued support and beta assistance. Thanks also to Ptero whose beta support has been greatly valued in the past, and hopefully will be again in the future. : ) This story is a Scullyfic improv story, the elements used are listed at the end. It's also my first post to xff/atxc, so I apologise if there are any formatting problems in advance. (I hope I've checked everything, so here goes. : ) XxxxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxxX Dill Waters Run Deep By tuatha "No, Mom." Mulder looked up at the sharp tone in Scully's voice. He'd heard it a few times before and he knew that it signified a line drawn in the sand. Anyone who crossed that line was likely to be surprised by how forcefully such a petite, normally considerate and politely spoken woman could assert her will. However Maggie Scully was unperturbed by her daughter's stubborn mood and continued arguing the point. "I don't understand why you're so adamantly against the idea. It's not like it could really hurt." Mulder extracted William from his carrier and began moving toward the bedroom. Maggie knew her own daughter, but he wasn't taking any chances of being caught in the firing line, especially when Scully crossed her arms and opened her mouth in preparation for an argument. Behind him he could hear the clatter of dishes as the two women cleared the table. Maggie obviously got in before her daughter fired another salvo. "And you never know, it might help." "Actually I think I do know. There is absolutely no medical basis for..." The sound of her voice in full lecture mode was shut off by the closing bathroom door. Mulder made a sympathetic face at little William who was starting to scrunch up his face, in preparation for yet another crying jag. "I know how you feel, slugger." He tugged at the strings holding the baby's bib on, and rinsed it under the tap while William stuffed his fist in his mouth, the sound of his crying muffled and almost bearable as a result. It didn't help that he had to wipe around the fist to clean his face, so he did his best to clean the hand as well. What he missed with the cloth he figured that Will would suck clean anyway. He held him up against his chest and glanced into the mirror above the sink, surprised to see himself looking quite comfortable with a baby drooling onto his shoulder. He wasn't as surprised by how tired he looked, the dark circles beneath his eyes a matching pair for Scully's similarly haggard look. Will had been a perfect baby for the first two months, so much so that he had begun to imagine the possibility of him sleeping through the night. It had soon become apparent that was not going to be the case. He had just begun to entertain the idea of spending a whole night in bed with Scully when Will had begun screaming regularly within an hour of being put to bed. And after being fed, changed, soothed to sleep and put down again had continued to wake and begin to cry again. All night for the last four nights in fact. The first time it had been Mulder's turn to roll out of bed in the dark and stumble his way to the crib, and he had panicked when William had continued to bawl after being changed. He'd rushed in to Scully who'd roused herself and was half sitting up and loosening her top, but when she'd heard the tone of his cries she'd wakened completely. She'd put her hand against his brow and frowned. "I don't think he's hungry." He'd nodded agreement while she'd slumped into the pillows again, and he'd walked three times around the living room before giving up and returning to the bedroom. Scully had fed him with little success while Mulder had crashed out. The next morning Scully had informed him that she'd had to rock him for nearly an hour before he'd finally succumbed to sleep, and that was how the pattern of their nights had continued. He had started to dread the evenings, and it was clear that William was working up to another round of family insomnia, starting to fuss immediately after dinner. He sighed and rubbed the baby's back as he returned to the living room, and hit the TV remote looking for a distraction. He surfed aimlessly for a few moments until a 'Hoooooowwww HowHowHowHow Hooooooowwwww' made Will lurch in his arms. He couldn't imagine a more mournful sound, except for the sound of a baby crying at three in the morning. "I hope you're not taking notes, kiddo." He murmured into the baby's ear as he settled into a chair. An earnest female voice explained the perils of encroaching civilisation on the habitat of the wolf, then the pictures switched from forest to grassland and a chittering sound filled the room. Mulder had been watching Will wave his arms, sudden punching movements that led to a squalling of emotion that drowned the barking sounds of the prairie dogs that bobbed up and down on the screen, warning of approaching danger. Mulder stood and hefted the boy in his arms, while the sounds overflowed around him. The long and short squeaks of the animals on Discovery were as incomprehensible as the ululations that emerged from Will. Like the tapping sounds of morse code, or the radio emissions from distant galaxies, they were just noise in the absence of the key to decode and understand their meaning. He closed his eyes, swaying slightly and rubbing the child's back, almost asleep on his feet. He kept wondering 'How much longer can we cope with this?' but he had no answer. 'As long as it takes' was about the size of it, and he knew they'd do it, he just wasn't sure how sanity remained in the equation. "I'm heading off, Fox." He opened his eyes and smiled at her. "Goodnight, Mrs Scully. Drive home safely." She came close enough to rub William's head gently, whispering 'be good' and dropping a kiss on his scalp before turning and hugging Scully, who'd emerged from the kitchen behind her mother. "Goodnight, Mom." "'Night sweetie. I'll call you tomorrow." She gave her daughter a meaningful look, one that Scully had no choice but to let pass, since she was in the midst of taking the baby from his arms, a delicate operation that they'd finally honed to an artform after weeks of practice. While Mulder locked the doors and checked the windows she retreated to the bedroom, and in the blessed absence of annoyed-sounding baby he found himself suddenly awake again. He sat at the kitchen table and eyed the bottle that rested there critically. It didn't seem particularly offensive, certainly not enough to cause the altercation between Scully and her mother, an argument he'd been glad to retire from without having to venture an opinion on the possible efficacy of the proferred cure for William's colic. Scully had vetoed its use without a second thought, citing a lack of medical evidence and the opinion that the only ingredient likely to have any effect was the alcohol content. Mulder stared at the row of tap dancing horses on the label of the bottle of 'Happy Horse Dill Water Tonic' and wondered if it really was as good as Maggie had sworn it was. She'd explained how Bill and Melissa has been no trouble as babies, but Scully had been so 'highly strung' that Billy had taken to calling her 'Crybaby' because of the few weeks that she'd kept them all awake until Mrs Scully had found a cure for the colic. When she'd added that the nickname that had stuck through Dana's pre-school years Mulder reflected that such an unhappy circumstance might have played no small part in the development of Scully's stoic facade as an adult. It was at that point that Scully had given her mother 'the look' and that had been when Mulder had determined to flee the kitchen as soon as humanly possible and leave them to it, taking William with him. The row of horses bared their teeth mockingly at him, their top hats at rakish angles, and he contemplated just taking William and dosing him with the tonic regardless of Scully's veto. He hadn't yet asserted any control over the day to day decisions about the care and feeding of the baby, deferring to Scully's opinion on whatever was best. She and the baby had seemed completely absorbed in each other for the first few weeks, a symbiotic bond that had excluded him, and yet seemed completely appropriate, and amazingly beautiful to observe. He'd have hung around just for that, to see Scully so *happy*, even if he hadn't felt the need to maintain the relationship they'd fostered through so many obstacles. He'd come to realise that he was no longer the most important person in Scully's life and that from now on her first thoughts would not be of him but of her child. That too seemed right, and he was surprised by how little it bothered him knowing he'd been displaced so elementally in her affections. It seemed so much saner a choice for her. At the same time that he was learning a new appreciation for Scully as a mother, he was also for the first time seeing himself as a father. He now had a role to live up to, and was finding himself strangely eager to prove himself capable and mature enough to complement her seeming innate mastery of motherhood. He'd stayed on the fringes long enough to find ways of being useful, picking up groceries and dry cleaning, forays for food and occasional trips home for his own laundry, but always with a reason to return to her apartment. He'd carefully skirted around observing how late it was getting each night, and she'd participated in their mutual self deception, turning her own blind eye to his tentative incursions into her life, encouraging him with a silent acceptance of his presence. He suspected that Scully was as much put out by embarrassment at her mother's revelatory story than by the product itself. At least he hoped so, and if it worked he figured she'd come round just out of sheer relief, and would be too tired to argue in any case. He rested his head on the table for a few moments, and was vaguely aware of remembered scenes from B grade westerns populated his mind, filling him with visions of horse doctors and charlatans promoting liniments and cure-alls before being run out of town on rails. The horses clacked their teeth together, or was it their hooves? A sound he knew was not normal for horses, but he realised they were trying to communicate something important to him so he listened carefully, his head bobbing up and down. That was right, he needed to keep scanning the horizon for predators, it was how he needed to protect the mother and young within, to stay aware and alert for danger. H jerked awake suddenly, and wondered how long he'd been asleep. It had been long enough to have numbed his jaw and ear where it rested on the hard wooden surface. He rubbed his ear where it stung from the returning blood flow and realised the sound from his dream was resolving into something else entirely. He stumbled to the doorway to see Scully lying back on the couch with William face down across her stomach. The tv was on with the volume set low, and the sound he'd heard had been her voice singing along to the 'No, no, no' of Notorious. The tv screen cast flickering shadows across her body while William contributed a bluesy undertone of 'Wah Wah Wah's that made his head hurt. "Here, give him to me." He leaned over and rested his hands gently on the baby's back ready to lift him, Scully's eyes opened slowly and she gave him a warm tired smile that distracted him from his purpose. He leaned over to softly kiss her mouth, and felt a peacefulness, a calm certainty stealing over him despite William's grumbling sounds. The additional pressure of his hands on the baby's back must have dislodged something because an enormous belch rose out of the tiny body, rumbling beneath his hands, and sounding much more adult than any baby had a right to. He looked down at his son, shocked and slightly envious, his mouth opening in surprise. When he looked up at Scully she was wearing the same wide eyed look. "Did you hear that?" She nodded solemnly, looking like they'd just discovered the secret of the ages. He grinned at her. "I really hope that came out the top end." She looked at him bug eyed for a moment while her mouth twisted, then she laughed, a mirthful peal that was cut off short at the sound of William snoring lightly and evenly for the first time in days. With her hand covering the curl of her lips and her eyes twinkling with humor he felt himself falling for her again, the woman who he'd loved and admired for years until their little bundle of joy had turned her into a walking zombie. The glimpse of that woman was enough to send him reeling again with affection and desire. "Oh God. Put him to bed, please." The naked appeal in her eyes was echoed fervently in his heart as he gently lifted the child, turning him carefully in mid air. The thought of two or maybe even three hours uninterrupted sleep exerted a siren call that was impossible to ignore. He lowered William into his crib with exaggerated care, covering him with his blanket gently before returning to haul Scully off the couch. He slid into the bed beside her with a sigh of contentment, his thoughts flowing endlessly down like water through a drain, his arm coming to rest against the warmth of her waist. He curled into her side and breathed the soft curls at her nape. He was sure he would sleep like a baby tonight. The End. XxxxxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxxxX The improv elements that were included in this story at the request of Scullyfic members were: a big ole fight between Scully and her mother A tap-dancing horse Mulder finds out about Scully's brief stint as a Duran Duran groupie, back in the day and an endangered prairie dog community that appears to be sending messages in Morse code. (from Lil Barb) Unfortunately the following element didn't make it in to the story: Some character riding one of those ever so popular Razor scooters. And not just for a few feet, but for a good distance. (I'm sorry. They stayed indoors. My apologies and virtual cookies for the omission.) Thanks for reading. tua : ) tuatha@bit.net.au XxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxX