From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 01:34:08 -0500 Subject: Poolside Times by Ante Up Source: direct Reply To: the_antes_up@spacemail.com Title: Poolside Times Author: Ante Up Rating: PG13 for a few bad words Keywords: MSR, fluff Feedback: Welcomed at the_antes_up@spacemail.com Archive: Sure fine whatever, just drop a line telling me. Spoilers: Everything through Requiem Summary: A day by the pool for the Scully clan. Author's notes: I chose the name Will not just because William is the name of Mulder and Scully's fathers but because there is a Will out there who I firmly believe is my soulmate. Just so you know... :) _________ Somewhere in the Colorado Rockies August 2002 I learned to swim before I can even remember, it's in the Scully blood. So, this morning, like most mornings, I got up early and headed to the pool to do some laps. Sometimes I liked to just float. There is something supremely sublime about watching the sunrise while you are floating in the water. Though in summer months like these the sun rises even too early for me to see usually. I love the quiet mornings, they give me a time to reflect, to take a step back and breath in the cool Rocky mountain air. Once in my life I had been so alone, I pushed even my mother and Mulder away. And then things changed and I invited Mulder in. Then Mulder left but Will came. About a year ago, when Will was only three months old, Bill had been trying to teach Matty to swim a bit and Matty had absolutely hated the water. Of course Matty was over four now and was a little more eager to get in the pool but he hadn't inherited the Scully characteristic. On the other hand, Will was a little fish, right from the start. It pleased me to no end that my baby loved the water as much as I did. But once he was in the water, it was a pain to get him out... he'd scream and holler. Basically he'd be as stubborn as his parents ever were. This morning Mom brought Will up an hour or so after I'd gone up. I opened the front of my bikini top and slung a towel over my top trying to maintain a little decency for the neighbors' sakes. I fed him as Mom and I sat under the big beach umbrella shading ourselves from the sun's encroaching rays. We sat there for some time, Mom reading a book and me just watching Will. Will finally had enough so I hooked my top back together and watched him doze against my chest... the drool trailing from his mouth was slimy but endearing. I knew Mulder would say he inherited that from me. The quiet reverie was eventually broken when the rest of the family joined us. Will was still kind of shy around his cousins so I didn't force him up to say hello. For all his giggles and smiles was a fairly sedate child, serious like his father. I could see Mulder so clearly in Will -- his full lips, his nose, and his impossibly long eyelashes. Will also had his father's thick chocolate-brown hair. His complexion however was very fair like mine and his eyes, when open, were the immeasurable, blazing deep blue of my own. It thrilled me to finally know what Mulder saw every time he looked in to my eyes. As Bill, Charlie and their families splashed around in the pool, I dropped off to sleep with my son still breathing deeply against my chest. I panicked later when I awoke and Will wasn't there. My fears subsided when I saw my mother and Will splashing around in the three-feet deep section of the pool. "Morning sleepyhead," my mom calls out. "What time is it?" "Almost..." She has to pause when Will sticks his hand in her mouth. "Silly boy," she says to him as she pulls his hand out and kiss his fingers. He giggles sweetly. "Almost 12:30." "I slept for an hour and a half?" I ask incredulously. "Yeah, Will woke up around 11:30 so I slathered some sunscreen on him so he could come in the water and we've been playing ever since." "Bill, Charlie and the crew went back to the cabin?" "No they are just in the clubhouse getting some lunch." The air smells of watermelon scented Bullfrog sunscreen, chlorine, hamburgers on the grill and the scent of vanilla that the sun and the wind lets loose from the Ponderosa pines surrounding the pool, clubhouse, golf greens and the cabins in the valley. My mother, her new husband Parker, and my two brothers and their families had come to visit me and Will. Will - my miracle - conceived out of years of friendship evolved to a love running so deep just thinking of it makes my chest ache. My relationship with Mulder was so well-earned, so powerful and so beautiful tears would unconsciously spring to my eyes when I thought of it sometimes. We had not been perfect people nor was our love perfect - nothing truly ever is. But even the imperfections were perfect, in their way. "Dana, come join us," my mother calls out. "Yeah Mom, okay." I stand and make my way carefully through the piles of swim things the Scully clan brought with them. I dive into the deep end and swim over to Mom and Will. I reach out and squeeze the large orange plastic floaties on Will's arms and he giggles, "Momma!" His hands flail in the water excitedly sending it splashing everywhere. "Hey Will," I laugh with him as I pull him into my arms and check to make sure his fair skin isn't getting burned. I notice my mother is checking my fair skin too. "Always a mother's duty right Mom?" I ask her with a knowing smile. "Always sweetie." She kisses my forehead and then Will's. "I'm going to go get lunch, okay?" "Yeah Mom." "Will, Grandma is going to go get lunch, then we'll play some more." "Okay," he says shyly. His vocabulary and enunciation is getting better every day. I am amazed at how he is developing, not necessarily because he is exceedingly intelligent or anything but because I never realized each special step that kids go through. It is incredible how the tiniest things can be so important. As she climbs out of the pool, Bill, Charlie, their wives and broods come streaming noisily out of the clubhouse. The kids eagerly half-running to the pool, having been forced to wait the requisite half-hour after eating, while their parents yelled, "No running around the pool, kids." "Are you ever going to be that crazy Will, huh?" He grabs an ear and squeals, "Yeah." I laugh and he giggles too, oblivious to the joke but knowing that I'm happy is enough to make him happy. I continue to play with him but after awhile he seems to have lost interest. I follow his gaze to his uncles, aunts and cousins in the five-foot deep area. "Will?" "Momma..." he says and points to the ruckus at the one corner of the pool. "Yeah, Will, there is Uncle Bill and Charlie and Auntie Tara and Kate and cousins Aaron, Rachel and Matty." He looks at me, trying to will me to know what he wants. I can sense his frustration. I feel very stupid sometimes when I can't understand his own language. Mom, having returned at some point, calls out to me and says, "Take Will over there Dana." She of all people should know I'm not tall enough and I don't like trying to tread water with Will in my arms. I turn a bit to face her and say with exasperation, "You know very well I'm not tall enough for that." I see a twinkle in her eyes and Will starts giggling and my eyebrow arches in suspicion of their mischievous behavior. But before I can do anything else, I feel a hand snake around my waist to the front and pull me back forcefully. I gasp as my body melds against his and he whispers in my ear, "But I am." He presses a kiss into my hair and I twist my upper-body around to see him. He leans over my shoulder to give Will a kiss, "Hey my beautiful boy." My head lolls against his shoulder and my eyes shut in contentment at the sentimental thread in his voice. I ache for all moments that couldn't be this perfect. "Hey my beautiful wife." I open my eyes and smile hugely. I lean forward a bit to capture his mouth. When we come up for air I ask, "Where have you been all morning, Mulder?" "I went golfing with Parker," he adds cautiously, "It was nice." "I'm glad." I know Mulder still feels a little uneasy with my family but Parker has helped immensely because he has joined Mulder in being the only entirely non-Scully-blooded males in the family tree. Of course the only one who ever really gave Mulder any grief was Bill. Sometimes I wonder whether Mulder loves to kiss me so much at family gatherings because he loves me or because he wants to piss of Bill. Either way it is an amenable situation to me but I am still curious. "Mulder do you like to kiss me in front of Bill a lot because you love me or because you want to piss him off?" He looks puzzled, "Who's Bill?" He makes a show of looking around in earnest, "I don't see a Bill, what's a Bill, wifey?" I try to hide my smile to no avail and he leans into kiss me passionately. Will's hand comes up to our faces and pats our cheeks as if to knock some sense into us. Mulder pulls away, "What's the matter Will, don't want any brothers or sisters?" "I don't think he has a choice in the matter now Mulder." His hand falls under the water to caress my still relatively flat abdomen. Baby number two due in late March, thankfullythough Mulder will be here for the whole thing this time. What can I say, we never do things in halves, not even settling down. "Oh, Mrs. Mulder, one not even out of diapers and another in the oven... what will the neighbors think?" I laugh as his voice takes on a falsetto tone of a gossipy old hen. Then I add, thoughtfully, "How lucky those two are." "I'll say," he moans seductively as he pulls me tighter in and rocks his hips against my ass. I bite my lip as I press back against him instinctively. I manage to say with mock indignation, "Mr. Mulder there are children present." "And I, Mrs. Mulder, thank God every day for that." I smile and turn in his arms. I wrap my legs around his hips, anchoring myself. Using the arm not holding Will, I pull his face to mine and say breathlessly, "Mulder do you like to fuck me in front of Bill a lot because you love me or because you want to piss him off?" He laughs as he brings his hands to cover Will's ears. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth Scully?" "Yeah but I like kissing you more." "Me too, Scully me too."