From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org
Date: 14 Aug 2004 21:43:02 -0000
Subject: Truckin\' 2:  Keep On Truckin\', NC17 Part 1 of 10 by FatCat & Donnilee


TITLE:          TRUCKIN' 2: KEEP ON TRUCKIN' Part 1 of 10

AUTHORS:        FATCAT & DONNILEE

E-MAIL:         FatCat33047@yahoo.com / donnilee@snet.net

RATING:         NC-17

SPOILERS:       Movie: Fight the Future, Pilot, Erlenmeyer Flask,
                Duane Barry, Ascension, Per Manum, The Truth,
                Dreamland I & II

DISCLAIMER:     It was evil gremlins that came up with this idea, I 
                swear!  Oh!  You mean the story?  The characters
                aren't ours unfortunately.  Frankly, I think we do
                better with them than their owners.  But alas, they
                belong to their creator, Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen 
                Productions and Fox Broadcasting.  We're both poor 
                as church mice.  Don't sue.

SUMMARY:        Mulder and Scully's adopted son discovers some 
                startling information about his 'square' parents, 
                changing the course of his life.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  This is a follow up to the first tale, "Truckin'" 
                in which M&S went undercover to break up a 
                hijacking ring in the trucking industry.  All you 
                really need to know is that they are a married 
                couple with a son who is Scully's by bioengineering
                and whom they adopted after finding out of his 
                existence.  He was seven at the time of the 
                adoption.  In the meantime, Scully has given birth 
                to twins, thanks to the preserved ova the Kurt 
                Crawfords saved for her.  You don't HAVE to have 
                read the first story, but it would help your 
                understanding of this one and we would love it if 
                you did!

                Oh, yeah, one scrunchie mention in honor of XL!

THANKS:         To our beta reader Cratkinson--Thanks for taking on
                this beast!

DEDICATION:     DONNI:  I'd like to dedicate this one to my husband,
                Bruno, who puts up with me and my eccentricities.
                He taught me about implicit trust and unconditional 
                love, something I can never repay him for.  Also,
                to my co-writer, FatCat, who sets my brain on fire
                with her never-ending stream of ideas.

                FATCAT:  I would like to dedicate this one to my 
                co-writer, Donnilee and Mr. Cat.  One is a good 
                friend and a great talent who makes it fun to 
                write.  The other is my best friend, lover and the 
                only person in my RL who understands and supports 
                my fanfiction addiction.
  

XXXXXXXXXX
PROLOGUE (PG-13)
MAE'S TRUCK STOP
MEMPHIS, TN
JUNE, 2000

The voices of the newest customers entering the diner registered in 
my brain, but I was too engrossed in an article on post-partum 
depression to really give them any attention.  Their words were 
quietly spoken, but in the silence of the near-empty diner, they 
were clear.

"I say we call.  We've not left him with Mom before and I don't 
want him to think we've forgotten him," she said as she moved to an 
empty table at the rear of the diner.

"We just called this morning.  If we call too often, he'll think 
that we're worried about him because there is something to worry 
about and it will probably scare him more than if we don't," the 
man replied as he pulled her chair out for her and then moved to 
sit across the table from her.

"You know how hard it's been for him to feel secure after all he's 
been through," she insisted.

"I know and I don't blame you for wanting to reassure him.  Hell, I 
want the same thing, but I still feel he'll be better off if we 
don't call again until tonight.  We need to do exactly what we told 
him we would do when we left."  The soft growl of his voice seemed 
to soothe her, and their conversation dipped too low to carry to 
the counter where I sat.

The Global-Tech driver sitting two seats down made a disgusted 
noise and said, "Suits!  I hate Suits.  Just fancy pencil pushers, 
if you ask me."  

Surprised by his words, I took a drink of my coffee and gave him an 
inquisitive look.

"Most of them don't have good sense, like those two.  Probably 
arguing over calling home and leaving a message for the Chihuahua, 
or something," he continued, jerking his head towards the new 
arrivals.  "Can't get away from them on the road.  Can't get away 
from them at weigh stations or dispatch.  Can't even get away from 
them when you're eating," he growled.

I just smiled at his statement and went back to my paper.

"I especially hate their kind," he muttered.  

This guy wasn't going to give up until someone responded to his 
one-man dissertation.  I laid down my paper and took another sip of 
coffee before speaking, "What's wrong with their kind?"

"Oh, you know.  Government Suits," he said as he chewed his dinner.

"How do you know that?"  I was curious now.

"They got a government plate on their car.  Their kind always 
drives like they own the road," he continued.  "Probably from the 
IRS, looking for some little old lady to kick out of her house."

'Bitter, are we?' I thought sarcastically.  I finally took a look 
at the two individuals in question and laughed.  "Not all of them 
are bad," I offered.

"Oh yeah?" asked the other driver.  "I ain't never met one of them 
worth their weight in sh ... fertilizer."  He nodded as if to 
underline his words.  "None of them has ever done anything for me."

I laughed a full-winded belly laugh and said, "I know two 
government suits who probably saved your life, my friend."

"What?  I ain't ever needed saving!" he sputtered.

"Didn't you hear about the hijackings goin' down with Global-Tech 
drivers last year?  Several teams of drivers were killed and their 
rigs stolen, cargo and all."

"Well, yeah, but I heard that the guys who masterminded it are in 
jail now," he said with a smile.

"Who do you think investigated the killers?  Who do you think put 
themselves on the line to solve the hijackings?"  I waited for an 
answer.

"Suits?" he said incredulously.  "You think it was Suits?" he 
laughed and shook his head.  "Wasn't no Suits that solved that 
crime.  Was a drivin' team called Phoenix and Lady Bird.  
Everyone's heard of them.  They're folk heroes, practically a new 
urban legend." 

"You don't say?"  I smirked as I took a sip of my coffee.

"Sure!  They appeared on the road in a big black Kenworth, all 
decked out.  They solved the crime and then they disappeared.  No 
one's ever seen them again."

I nodded, hoping to egg him on.  "What else have you heard?" I 
asked, now enjoying myself.

"I heard they was loaded to the gills with weapons, even had a 
grenade launcher.  Blew up some of the assholes who tried to stop 
'em."  A disbelieving snort from the waitress made him blush and 
say, "No offense meant, Mae."

"None taken," she replied casually.  Mae ran a tight ship, no 
unnecessary swearing or rude behavior in her diner.  She filled our 
cups and walked away.

"No Suits could have done that.  It had to be one of our own," he 
stated conclusively.

I didn't reply.  I just shook my head and took a sip of hot coffee.

"Are you sayin' it was a pair of Suits that broke up the ring and 
blew up their hideout?"  The Global-Tech driver's tone made his 
disbelief evident.

"Naw, they weren't wearing suits at the time."  I grinned at the 
look of surprise on the driver's face.

"You was there?  You know what happened?"  His eyes were glowing 
with excitement.

"Yep, I was there."  I folded my paper and pulled a ten out of my 
pocket as I stood up.

"Where you going, man?  I want to know all about it."  He reached 
out and grabbed my arm to stop me. 

I glared down at the Global-Tech driver and said, "I was told to 
keep the details to myself." 

"No shit!  They swore you to secrecy?  Did they threaten you?  Make 
you sign sumthin'?" he enthused.

I leaned forward and whispered, "If I told you the details ..."

"Yeah?" said the big-eyed driver.

"I'd have to kill ya'," I finished as I shook off his hand.

The smaller man blanched and swallowed hard, but then he decided my 
comment was a joke and laughed.  

I frowned at him and said, "I probably should cut out your tongue 
for what you know already."

The Global-Tech driver jumped to his feet and threw a twenty down.  
"You're just funnin' me, ain't you?" he said as he backed 
away.

When I didn't answer right away, he took off towards the door.

"Keep the change, Mae.  I gotta hit the road," he said hastily.

I stood there and watched him leave.  The Global-Tech rig pulled 
out of the diner lot in a cloud of dust.  I smiled as I walked 
towards the Suits at back of the diner.

"You scaring off the competition, Cooner?"  Mulder stood up to 
shake my hand.

"Phoenix, uh, Marty and Ms. Scully.  It's good to see you again," I 
said.

"Cooner!  What a surprise.  How are you?  Is Alice with you?"  
Scully looked around.

"We're good.  She's at home.  We're expecting our first in a couple 
months.  How are you two?"

"Well," Mulder said as he smiled at Scully.

"It's Dana Scully-Mulder now, Cooner."  She smiled back at Mulder.

"Well, I'll be.  That's really something.  Wait until I tell 
Alice."  I patted Scully on the shoulder and punched Mulder in the 
arm.

Mulder faked a cringe and grabbed his arm, "Owww.  Watch it big guy 
or I won't tell you the rest of our news."

"There's more?"  I looked at Scully and back to Mulder.  "Well?"

"We're not only married, but we have a seven year old son," Mulder 
grinned.

"Oh, I didn't know you had a kid, Mulder." 

"We have a son, Cooner.  We adopted him right after we got back to 
Washington."  

The loving look that passed between the agents was obvious to 
anyone around them.  There had to be a story behind this speedy 
adoption, but I assumed that the private details would not be 
discussed.  "Wow!  That's great!" I said.  "Maybe you can give me 
some tips for my upcoming bambino.  What brings you to my neck of 
the woods?"

"We had a case in Memphis.  We couldn't pass up Mae's coconut cream 
pie, though," Mulder winked at me.  "Even if it is a little out of 
the way."

Scully blushed and smiled.  "I'm the one who wanted the pie, 
Cooner.  I've been craving it for so long, I couldn't come this 
close and not have a piece."

"You sound like my Alice.  She's got a thing for banana Popsicles.  
Have you ever heard of anything so bizarre?  She just about rips me 
a new one if I go home with out a big box of them.  But she's preg 
... oh!" I sputtered to a halt and gawked at Scully.  "Are you?  
Are you in the family way, Ms. Scully?"

"That's Dana to you Cooner, and yes, we're expecting in about four 
more months."

"Well, I'll be.  You two don't waste any time, do ya'?"  I couldn't 
help looking at her stomach.  The clothes she was wearing hid any 
clue that she was pregnant.  Thinking back to Alice at five months, 
she shouldn't be that big anyway.  

Mulder grinned and squeezed Scully's hand.  "This is the first time 
Scully's been back out on the road with me since we adopted D.K. a 
while ago."

"Mulder, we agreed to call him Devlin," she sighed.

"I know, I know."  Mulder turned to me to explain.  "His name was 
Douglas Kurt Crawford and so everyone called him D.K.  He's always 
hated his name and he asked us if we would change his first name as 
well as his last name when we adopted him.  Now he's Devlin Scully 
Mulder, but it's hard to remember not to call him D.K."

"I would think someone who hated their first name as much as you, 
Mulder, would find it easy to remember," Scully teased.

"Oh, yeah?" I asked.  "What's wrong with Marty?"

Scully laughed and Mulder blushed.  "Well, Marty's not my real 
name, Cooner."  He hesitated.

"Well, come on man, what is it?"

"Fox," Mulder muttered.

"What?"

"Fox." 

"Well, I can see why you might not like it, but it's not exactly 
the worst I ever heard," I tried to assure him.

Mulder gawked at me.  "What's worse than Fox?"

Now it was my turn to feel the heat creeping up into my face.  

"I shared with you, Cooner, it's only fair," Mulder cajoled me.

I sighed and nodded.  Fair was fair.  "Well, my momma had me at 
home and when the doc got there he was 'dead drunk and stunk like a 
whorehouse'.  No offense, Ms. Scully, those were her words," I 
hurried to explain.

Scully looked like she was trying not to laugh out loud, but 
couldn't keep herself from giving me a little smile.

"My ma wanted to name me Conner after her brother and since I was 
the seventh boy, my dad let her have her way."

"So your real name is Conner?" Mulder asked.

"That's what it was supposed to be, but like I said, Doc was drunk 
and when he wrote it, he, uh, spelled it wrong."  I blushed.  "I 
went through school with the name of Cummer.  It wasn't so bad 
until the guys started to give me nick names, but by that time I 
was growin' faster than they were, so it didn't last too long." 

Mulder laughed, "You got me beat, Cooner."

"Why does everyone call you Cooner now, instead of Conner?" Scully 
asked.

"Well, when I got my first driver's license, the clerk misspelled 
it to Cooner and I never asked for it to be changed.  It was better 
than my real name and I didn't see any use in spending good money 
just to change it to something else."

They both laughed and agreed with my logic.

"What are you going to name this one?" I asked to change the 
subject.

"We don't know yet.  We have several names picked out, but we don't 
know whether it's boys, or girls or any mix there of," Scully said 
as she rubbed her stomach.

"You mean there might be more than one?"  My eyes bugged out.  
Thank God Alice was only having one baby.

"Yep," Mulder's eyes twinkled.  "It could be triplets."

"Twins," Scully scowled.

"Whatever," said Mulder.  "We know it's more than one."

Just then, Mae walked up with a cooler in her hands.  "Here you go, 
honey.  Two pies, one coconut cream and one banana cream packed 
just right for traveling."

"Thanks, Mae.  I can't wait to get home," Scully said with a smile.

"Speaking of getting home, we have a plane to catch, Scully."  
Mulder offered his hand to his partner.  She squeezed it and stood 
up.  My eyes probably bugged out of my head.  She was as big as 
Alice and she still had four months to go.

"Cooner, it was really nice to see you again.  If you're ever in 
D.C., give us a call."  She turned to Mulder and said, "I'll be 
right back."

Mulder rolled his eyes at me and muttered, "Like that's a 
surprise."

"Yeah, I know what you mean.  Alice can't seem to pass one of those 
things without running into it these days."  I laughed, looking 
towards the bathroom.  "Better her than me."

Mulder laughed with me, but shook his head.  "Don't let one of them 
hear you say that."

I nodded in agreement.  Scully rejoined us a couple of minutes 
later.

The two agents once again said goodbye to Mae and me and left the 
diner.

"So," Mae said as she poured me another cup of coffee.  "Those two 
your folk heroes you and our young friend was talking about?"

"Yep," I sipped my coffee.

"Urban legends, huh?" Mae pumped.

"Yep."

"Come on Cooner, you know I want to know the whole story," she 
fussed.

"Well, Mae, you know I talk better when I'm eatin' pie."

She turned and marched into the kitchen to return with a large 
slice of apple pie with ice cream on top.

I took a big bite and winked at her.  "Well, it all started at 
Friendly Bill's Tavern across from the AMERASTOP truck stop," I 
began.


XXXXXXXXXX
PART 1 (PG-13)
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
10 YEARS LATER
JUNE 7, 2010
MONDAY - 3:00 PM

I watched my son, Devlin, sit at the computer, his fingers flying 
over the keyboard as if they had a mind of their own.  The kid was 
a genius.  Normally he was a good kid, star athlete, good scholar 
and well-liked by all his peers.  Unfortunately, he had a crappy 
attitude lately, and I didn't really know what to do about it.

Lord knows, Scully and I had tried everything we could think of to 
turn him around.  If I heard one more teacher proclaim, 'He's so 
intelligent, he just doesn't apply himself,' I was going to scream.
The kid pulled down straight A's in all his classes, but those were 
accompanied by solid F's in effort and attitude for every class 
except those in his programming block. 

He wasn't my son biologically, but I considered him mine in every 
way that counted.  I loved him, and like any parent, I wanted to 
see him do well for himself.  He'd grown into an extremely handsome 
young man.  

Yesterday was his seventeenth birthday.  He'd had some friends over 
for a swim party and then our family had joined us for dinner.  
He'd opened his gifts, being gracious for a change.  All signs of 
his poor attitude disappeared during the party.  As soon as the 
family left, however, he was back to where he always went with 
every free scrap of time, to the computer.  

Tonight was no exception.  He was playing some sort of on-line
D&D game right now and I watched silently over his shoulder from
a distance.

Scully had named him Devlin when we adopted him.  He was thrilled 
that he was getting a new last name and asked us to change his 
first name, too.  It meant 'fierce' in Gaelic and it fit him.  He 
was Scully's biological son, although he didn't know that yet.  I'd 
often thought we should tell him, but Scully kept hedging.  Since I 
decided long ago these things would be her call, I deferred to her 
judgment.  I'd have to talk to her about it again soon.  

"Hey, Dev, take a break, huh?"

"Ahh, wait a minute, I'm at a good part," he replied without even 
looking my way.

"Five minutes, in the kitchen, no excuses," I intoned in my most 
fatherly way.

He saluted me with attitude and went back to playing his game.  I 
sighed and made my way into the kitchen, started the coffee brewing 
and fixed our cups with sugar and cream waiting for it to finish.
 
Five minutes later, no surprise, no Devlin.  I poured a cup of 
coffee from the still brewing pot and walked to the door between 
the kitchen and the den where his computer was set up.

"Now, Devlin," I ordered.

He sighed dramatically, but hit a few keys to suspend his game and 
stood grudgingly, brushing past me with his head down.  He went to 
the fridge and pulled out the orange juice, pouring himself a glass 
and then plopping down in the one of the kitchen chairs. 

"We need to talk about college, stud," I said lightly.

He immediately scowled and said, "Ah, come on, yesterday was my 
friggin' birthday, for God's sake.  I'm only a junior in high 
school.  I've got another whole year before I graduate.  Can't you 
even leave me alone for one day?" 

I scowled back.  "Watch your language," I reprimanded as the twins 
came running down the stairs, squealing as they headed for the 
front door.  "Hey, M&M?  Where are you two demons going?" 

They slid to a stop, Mackenzie's hand on the doorknob.  "We have 
soccer practice," he said, as if I were the child.

"Oh, sorry," I said.  "I forgot.  Is Mom picking you up?"

"Yup!" they said in unison, and flew out the door, slamming it 
behind them.  I smiled at their backs, once again marveling at the 
miracle these two represented.

Mackenzie was placid and responsible.  His sister, Mairin was 
always into mischief, but she was a good kid too.  Mairin meant 
'bitterly wanted child', in Gaelic, which she certainly was.  
Scully got into this Gaelic thing when it came to naming the kids.  
She still liked to tease me about Mackenzie's name.  In Gaelic it 
meant 'son of a handsome man'.  The twins were dark like me, but 
Devlin had red, curly hair and snapping blue eyes like Scully.  He 
had a square jaw and at seventeen, stood almost six feet tall.  

He was a wizard hacker and idolized Langly, the only one who could 
thus far out-hack him.  There had been something dark lurking under 
the surface in him lately.  It had worried me for months, but I 
could never put my finger on the source of it.  Being a 
psychologist, this frustrated the hell out of me, but I also 
realized that it's difficult to be objective about your own kids.

I turned to look at him again and he was scowling at the door to 
the den.  "I'm sorry to bring this up again, but if I don't, your 
mother will, and she's a hell of lot more rigid than I am."

"Tell me about it," he groaned.  

"You're a bright kid, Devlin.  There's no reason you can't do 
anything you want to do.  But you have to have a game plan."

"I don't have a clue."

"Well, you need to start thinking about it.  In fact, you need to 
think hard, because your mother wants you to start applying to 
colleges before the end of the school year, which, by the way, is 
looming large."

He narrowed his eyes at me.  "Mom wants, Mom wants.  What do YOU 
want?"

"I want the same thing," I assured him.

"Whatever Mom wants," he sneered.

"In this case, yes."

"I'll think about it," he said with a shrug.

"See that you do.  I know you think I'm a pain in the ass, Devlin, 
but I only want what's best for you.  I want what every father 
wants.  I want you to find a career you like and be safe and 
reasonably happy."

He stood up abruptly, starling me and yelled, "You're not my God-
damned father!"

Stunned silence vibrated throughout the kitchen as I stared up at 
him, feeling his accusation like a physical blow.  I felt tears 
sting the backs of my eyelids and I blinked rapidly to prevent them 
from materializing.

He clucked his tongue in disgust and whispered, "Jesus!"

I took a deep breath, gathered my thoughts, and stood up.  We stood 
eye to eye and I leaned into him, my nose an inch from his 
beautiful, arrogant face.  My voice was a little rough but I said 
calmly, "I'm the only father you've ever known, Devlin.  I've done 
my damnedest to make sure you had the love and support every kid 
needs.  If it wasn't for your mother and me, you might have grown 
up in a fucking orphanage.  So don't pull any righteous bullshit on 
me.  I've loved you like you were my own.  I still love you, I 
always will.  But this attitude of yours has got to GO!  I won't 
tolerate any more of it.  I've had it."

He swallowed harshly but held my gaze, his jaw clenched.  I won the 
staring contest and he finally looked to the side.  "Sit down," I 
commanded.  He did, but wouldn't look at me.  "Is that what's 
bothering you lately?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked with a hint of belligerence 
but it was tempered so I decided to let it go.  He was so angry and 
I couldn't figure out why.

"I mean, why are you so angry all the time?  Did I or someone else 
do something that pissed you off so badly you can't even be civil 
anymore?"

He shook his head, still staring at the cabinets like they were 
interesting.

"You want to tell me about it?"

"Don't go all 'therapist' on me, Dad."

"Oh, NOW I'm your dad, huh?"

He glanced at me and looked chagrined.  "I'm sorry," he said so 
quietly I almost missed it.  "I didn't mean it," he said as his 
eyes slid down to stare at the table.
 
"Look at me," I said.

He reluctantly raised his eyes to mine.  "I love you, Devlin.  
That's not going to change.  I don't like it when you are bothered 
or angry.  But if you're not willing to tell me what the problem 
is, then you have no right to take it out on me.  Do you 
understand?"

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"Now, I'm going to ask you one more time.  What is bothering you?"

"You can't help me."

"Maybe, maybe not, but I can listen.  I'm quite good at it as a 
matter of fact."

One corner of his mouth twitched up and his eyebrow arched high 
over his blue eye.  He reminded me so much of Scully at that 
moment, that I felt a lump form in my throat.  How could I not love 
Scully's son?  He had to be told, and soon.  I had a feeling his 
ancestry was what was at the root of all this brooding.  He was 
entitled to know.  He was old enough to handle the truth.  I had to 
try and convince Scully to tell him.  But now was not the time.  It 
had to be Scully's call. 

"Don't you get tired of listening to everyone's bullshit all day 
long?" he asked, out of the blue.

I chuckled.  "No, most of the time it makes me feel pretty good 
about my own life.  I hear how screwed up their lives are and any 
problems I had in the past suddenly seems to be inconsequential."

He chuckled now, warming up finally.  "I guess that's one way to 
look at it."

"Do some thinking and we'll talk again after your mother gets 
home."

He nodded and stood up.  As he walked past me he said, "I really am 
sorry, Dad."

I patted his shoulder and he stopped in mid-stride.  I hugged him 
to me and said, "If you ever want to talk, I'm here.  I might 
surprise you with the things I understand."

He surprised me then by gasping and hugging me back tightly.  It 
was just for a moment and then he let go and flashed me a grin, 
nodded, and went back to his computer.  I decided to drop it for 
now.  We ended on a good note and I didn't want to upset the apple 
cart again, although I knew I was going to have to.

XXXXXXXXXX
TWO HOURS LATER

Scully walked through the door with two sweaty, dirt-streaked kids 
behind her.  She was juggling her pocketbook, briefcase and a bag 
of groceries.  I rushed to take the groceries out of her arms and 
she smiled at me, kissing me on the cheek.  

"Into the shower you two mud pies!" she pronounced.  "And take off 
your cleats before you go tromping through the house!"

I listened to the sound of cleats hitting the hard wood floor in 
the foyer and then the patter of stocking feet, thumping up the 
stairs.  The kids shared a bathroom upstairs, with double sinks, a 
toilet and a walk-in shower.  In addition to our master bath 
upstairs, we had a half bath off the office and a full bath 
downstairs attached to a master guest suite.  As was the usual 
routine, Mackenzie chose to use the bath upstairs and Mairin headed 
back down the hall with clean clothes to the downstairs bathroom to 
clean up.

I already had a ziti casserole in the oven.  I unpacked the fixings 
for a salad and the ranch dressing from the bag onto the kitchen 
counter.  Scully came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me 
from behind, laying her head between my shoulder blades.  She'd 
shed her pumps by the front door.  I was still periodically 
startled by how tiny she was without her shoes on.  I was over a 
head taller so she came just to my armpit without her shoes on.  

I hummed my approval and took a glass salad bowl out of the cabinet 
and started chopping up the tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots she'd 
shopped for on the way home.

She stayed where she was and whispered, "Did you talk to Devlin?"

"I tried.  It didn't go well at first, but we ended on a good note.
I'll tell you later.  I don't want him to overhear."

"Okay," she sighed.  "I'm going to change out of this suit and I'll 
be right back down to help."

"Dinner in ten," I replied.  "No need to hurry."

She squeezed me tight and then dropped her arms.  She left the 
room, and five minutes later the timer went off and I took the huge 
pan of ziti casserole out of the oven.

Devlin appeared in the door to the kitchen.  "Man that smells good. 
What is it?" he asked casually, once again trying to establish a 
rapport.  He did this often.  He had these outbursts of temper and 
then would return, acting as if nothing was wrong, nothing had 
happened, and testing the waters again.

"It's a vegetarian ziti casserole," I said.

"Vegetarian?" he replied with a comical grimace.

"Yeah, don't squirm.  It just has eggplant, corn and green beans in 
it instead of hamburger.  But never fear, I used a Six Italian 
Grated Cheese mix in it."  

Just then his stomach growled loudly and we both grinned.  "Guess 
my stomach doesn't mind," he replied.

"Have a seat," I said.  I began pulling glasses out of the cupboard 
and filling two smaller ones for the twins with milk.  I poured 
iced tea for Scully and me and turned to Devlin.  "What do you want 
to drink?"

"Gatorade."

"With ziti?" I asked, making a face.

He smiled again.  "Yup, I'll get it."

"To each his own," I mumbled and carried the glasses to the table, 
which was already set.  Since I worked from home and had my psych 
office right here in the house, I usually made dinner.  I could 
prepare it and set it to cook and see more patients in the 
meantime.  I had a separate entrance for the office at the back of 
the house.  I only did it part time, about thirty hours a week.  I 
also consulted with the Bureau on various cases, mostly VCS, 
assisting with profiles.  I had one waiting for me on my desk at 
that very moment.

"Can I ask you a question?" Devlin asked cautiously.

"Sure, shoot," I said, sitting down after placing the casserole on 
a trivet in the center of the table.  I put the big salad bowl and 
tongs on the table next to it.  I tasted my iced tea while we 
waited for everyone else to show up.

"Don't you ever get tired of all this?"

"All what?"

"This.  Life.  Being a house-husband," he said with a wave of his 
hand.

I looked up to read his face.  His question wasn't sarcastic.  His 
interest seemed to be sincere.  "No, actually I don't.  I know it's 
not for everyone, but I enjoy it."

He scrunched his brow and again reminded me of Scully.  His facial 
features were not soft and rounded like hers.  They were angled and 
masculine, but he made these faces now and then that were pure 
Scully, like cocking one eyebrow up or pursing his full lips.  Then 
there was this expression when he was truly confused, scrunching 
his eyebrows down and forming a worry line above the bridge of his 
nose.  "Why?  I mean, I know that sounds dumb," he hesitated and 
then continued.  "You've got a doctorate from Oxford and were a 
Special Agent with the FBI before the twins came, but you gave it 
all up for this.  How can you enjoy it?"

I smiled.  "Because for years, Devlin, I had no family at all.  I 
had an exciting, fulfilling career, albeit frustrating sometimes, I 
admit.  I had a decent apartment, money in the bank, and a nice 
car, but," I hesitated.

"But?" he urged. 

"I had no one, Devlin.  Everyone in my immediate family was dead.  
I was the last Mulder, and I went home to bed alone every night.  I 
was very lonely.  I don't know if you can imagine how lonely I 
was," I said.

"You had Mom."

I smiled again.  "Yeah, eventually I had your mom, but we were just 
friends back then, and that wasn't enough for me."

"Not for her either, obviously," he teased.

I grinned wider and nodded.  "Lucky for me.  I didn't have the one 
thing I really wanted, love.  I realized that I needed to be part 
of a family.  There was a time when I didn't think I'd ever have 
one.  Then I finally finagled your mother into the sack," I said, 
winking at him.

He laughed.  "Thanks for that visual, Dad," he replied cheekily.  
He paused and then asked, "How did you guys get together?"

"That's a long story and one for another time.  But we finally 
became intimate while we were on an undercover case posing as man 
and wife.  We'd been partners for years but we waited until just a 
few days before we got married to explore a physical relationship." 

"No shit?" he said surprise evident in his voice.  

I realized how truly little he knew of our past before he came 
along.  We had in fact, gotten married mere months before we 
adopted him at the age of seven.  When he was a child none of this 
history had mattered.  Now it seemed to be important to him.

"No shit," I replied.  "Now WATCH your language.  Here come the 
twins."

They bounded into the kitchen, Scully trailing behind them, and 
took their regular seats at the table.  "Mulder, that smells 
delicious," she said, dropping another kiss on my lips before she 
sat down.

We all were silent for a while as we loaded up our plates.  I took 
Scully's hand on my right and Mairin's on my left.  "Mackenzie, why 
don't you say Grace tonight?" I said.

He cleared his throat dramatically and we all smiled.  "Lord, thank 
you for this food and this time together as a family.  Bless this 
bounty in Jesus' name.  Amen."

"Amen," we all chorused.

For several minutes, the sound of silverware clinking on plates was 
all that was heard.  When I took the edge off my hunger, I asked, 
"So besides soccer practice, what did you two do today?"

Mairin spoke up first.  "Oh, it was cool.  Mrs. Beasley let us sit 
outside for class today."

"What class is that?" I asked.

"English.  She had us go around in a circle and each read a 
paragraph of this story we're reading."

"What are you reading?"

"Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger," she replied.

"Oh, that's a good one.  What about you, Mac?" I asked, using the 
derivative of his name that had long since become his nickname.

"Nothing much, the usual."  He shrugged.  "There was one crowning 
moment," he added with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

Scully and I both eyed him expectantly.  He was so bright for his 
age, and his vocabulary was way above average.  "I managed to crash 
the hard drive on the PC I was using in the computer lab," he said 
proudly.

Scully and I both started laughing.  Devlin groaned.  "You're 
hopeless, Mac!" he exclaimed.  "What is this, the third one?  What 
did you do this time?"

"I don't know.  I've been using that PC for a while now and haven't 
had any trouble.  Then I went to save something and everything went 
crazy.  It froze up and I got the blue screen of death.  Then I 
tried to reboot and it just went black.  Nada.  I killed it good."

"I have to teach you some basics, dude.  You can't keep blowing up 
those computers."

"I hate that class anyway.  It's dumb."

"It's only dumb 'cause you don't get it," Mairin shot at him.

"Hey!" Scully responded.  "That wasn't nice.  We all have our 
strong points, Mairin, and our weak points."

"Yeah, you suck at math," Mackenzie shot back.

"Stop it, right now," I said, raising my voice.  "Don't start that 
crap at the dinner table.  You are both intelligent; you just have 
different strengths and interests.  This isn't a contest."

They both looked sorry and glanced at each other.  Devlin said, 
"Where were you saving the document, Mac?"

He shrugged.  "I don't know.  I clicked on the C-colon-back slash."

Devlin groaned.  "Mac!  How many times do I have to tell you not to 
save things to the root directory?"  He shrugged again, frowning.  

"That's enough, Devlin.  You and Mac can discuss it later," I said.  
Devlin sighed and nodded and returned to his plate.  Mac was just 
staring at his plate.  "It's okay, buddy.  You'll get it 
eventually.  I'm still struggling when it comes to computers.  We 
can't all be geniuses like Devlin here."

He looked up and smiled and started eating again.  Crises of self-
esteem averted.  This time, anyway.  Score one for Dad, I thought 
to myself.  Scully lifted a corner of her mouth, flashing me an 
approving smile for my handling of the situation.

I found myself smiling as I chewed.  Despite all the ups and downs, 
I wouldn't trade this life for anything.  I looked at each of my 
kids and realized how truly blessed I was.

I set my fork down and cleared my throat.  Everyone turned to look 
at me.  "I know I don't say it often," I began.  "But sometimes I 
look at you guys and it's like a miracle.  I can't believe how 
blessed I am to have such an intelligent and beautiful wife, and 
such great kids.  I don't deserve you guys, but I'll take you 
anyway.  I love you guys."

Scully smiled from ear to ear.  The twins rolled their eyes, and 
Devlin snorted.  Mackenzie laughed and said, "You're so corny, 
Dad."  

That made us all laugh.  Scully lifted her iced tea glass and I 
clinked mine against hers.  "Here's to being corny," she replied.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 7, 2010
10:10 PM

I sat on the bed brushing my hair as I watched Mulder putter around 
our bedroom.  He had something on his mind and was trying to find 
the right way to approach me.  After all these years, I can read 
him like a book.

He leaned back against the corner of the closet and started 
scratching his back.  "Why don't you come over here and I'll do 
that for you," I offered.

He gave me a big smile and headed over to the bed.  As he walked 
towards me, he pulled his tee shirt off over his head.  I sat 
transfixed, watching him bare the golden skin of his stomach and 
chest.  I realized that I had been holding my breath and that my 
mouth was watering.  He still had a beautiful body for a man 
nudging fifty.  I let my eyes slide up from his chest and knew that 
he had been watching me check him out.  My eyes dipped down and 
confirmed that he was responding to me the same way.  His pajama 
pants were low slung on his narrow hips and his erection was 
already at more than half-mast.

I grinned and shrugged, "Better cool your jets, buddy, or you're 
going to be more than a little uncomfortable lying down on your 
stomach."

"Who says I'm going to lie down?" he growled.

"I do, your back is itching and I need to give it a good scratch 
and put some lotion on it."  I pulled him down on the bed next to 
me.

"I don't suppose you'd want to do a little massage while you're 
back there, would you?" he groaned as he stretched out on the bed.

"I could be convinced to include a massage, for the right 
incentive," I teased as I began to scratch his back all over.

"Ah, yeah, right there, over a little, towards you, up, that's it," 
he moaned as my nails moved across his broad back.

I started to massage his neck and shoulders, surprised at the 
tightness of the muscles there.  "I see Mickey P. was here today," 
I offered.  Mulder didn't get this tight anymore, unless there was 
an outside stressor involved.

"Yeah," he sighed.  "I don't think I'm helping that child, Scully.  
He needs to be in a controlled environment for intensive therapy, 
if only for a short period of time."

"You still think his step-father is the problem?"  I often 
discussed Mulder's caseload with him.  He knew I would never reveal 
anything we discussed in our room.  I reached for the lotion I kept 
by the bedside and began to rub it in as I massaged him.

"Yeah," he groaned.

He tried to turn over, but I pushed him back down.  I climbed on 
the bed and sat on his rear end while I continued to massage his 
back.

"The social worker from Children's Services swears that he's not 
the problem, but I just have a feeling about this.  Mickey needs to 
be in a controlled environment where he can feel safe enough to 
talk about what happened and maybe even grow to trust someone 
enough to ... but that's not my job, is it?"  He looked over his 
shoulder at me and grinned.  "You always bring me back down to 
basics, Scully.  It's one of the reasons I love you so much."

I leaned forward to kiss his cheek, "I love you right back."

He settled back down on the bed and pumped his hips up and down 
enough that I had to hold on to his sides to keep from being tossed 
off.  I slid up his body, covering him with mine, and whispered in 
his ear.  "Feeling frisky tonight, Dr. Mulder?"

"I always feel 'frisky' when you're touching me, Dr. Scully," he 
growled.

"Mmmmm.  You were feeling very mellow and emotional at dinner 
tonight, Mulder.  Want to talk about why you felt that way?"  I 
could tell from the way he grew very still that I had hit a nerve.

"Yes," he said finally as he moved to turn over.

I let him change positions and spread out along the length of him, 
propping my chin on my stacked fists as I looked into his eyes.

"I talked to Devlin today."

"And?"  I waited.

He sighed and said, "He wasn't exactly receptive to discussing 
colleges."

The sad expression on his face told me that there was more than 
Devlin's lack of interest in his higher education that had been 
discussed.  I let him work through it on his own.  He would tell me 
in his own time.

A few minutes later he said, "Scully, I think it's time we told 
Devlin everything about his adoption."

Now this really did surprise me.  We had briefly touched on the 
subject previously, but Mulder knew that I wanted to wait until our 
son was eighteen to give him the details.  "What brought this up?"

Mulder chewed on the inside of his cheek, a sure sign that he was 
upset about what he was going to tell me.  Finally he said, "His 
attitude has taken a nosedive lately, I'm sure you've noticed.  
He's getting straight A's in school, but the guidance counselor and 
all his teachers still feel his attitude is poor.  He's been short-
tempered with M&M and both of us."

"Did he say something to you about his adoption?" I asked.

"No, not directly."  Mulder was sidestepping my question.

"What exactly did he say to you earlier that's upset you?" I asked.

Mulder sighed.  "We were talking about college and he blew me off.  
I told him that I just wanted what every father wants for their 
child, a good start through a good education."

"And?"

"He got angry at me and told me I'm not his father."

I slid off Mulder and sat up straight.  "What?  What did you say?"  
I was torn between my anger at Devlin for hurting this good man and 
my upset over our child's angst caused by not knowing the facts 
about his 'real parents'.

"I handled it, Scully.  I told him that I loved him unconditionally 
and that as far as I was concerned he is my child.  I asked him if 
that was why he had been acting so belligerent lately but he didn't 
answer that one."

"I'll speak to him.  He has no right to talk to you like that, 
Mulder!" I huffed.

"Scully, it's okay."  Mulder soothed me with his voice and his 
touch as he drew me back down into the circle of his arms.  "I told 
him that I would not put up with that kind of disrespect.  He 
apologized, Scully.  I think he was as surprised as I was to hear 
the words come out of his mouth."

"It's not okay, Mulder.  You know I can't stand anyone hurting you, 
not even our son."  I had promised myself years ago that no one 
would ever hurt this good, loving man again.

"Scully, I handled it.  I only told you this because I believe it's 
the basis for his rebellion.  He needs to know who his biological 
parents were and why he was put up for adoption.  It's a normal 
response for someone like Devlin.  Face it, the kid is a genius and 
we've done our best to educate him and keep him well balanced 
emotionally and spiritually.  However, he is a teenager and pushing 
the boundaries of his environment is his job."

I kissed him and sighed.  "I know, Mulder."

"I think you should consider telling him everything about his 
adoption," Mulder urged.

I thought about this for a few minutes as Mulder's fingers stroked 
up and down my body.  The thought of trying to explain to our son 
the complexities of our life before our marriage was daunting.  
Even if he did believe me, how would he react to the knowledge that 
I was his biological mother?  Also, now realizing how my decision 
to withhold the entire truth of his parentage was causing him to 
act out, what would be his reaction to my silence for the last ten 
years?  I shivered and Mulder pulled me closer to his warm body.

"I should have told him when he was younger," I said, "When you 
first suggested it."

"It would have been easier to explain, but I think you were right 
to wait until he was older to tell him the entire truth," Mulder 
said.  "It's never going to be easy.  It's a lot to accept for 
anyone.  Remember Walt's reaction?"

I smiled against his chest, remembering the conversation as if it 
were yesterday.


XXXXXXXXXX
PART 2 (PG)
OFFICE OF A.D. WALTER SKINNER
WASHINGTON, D.C.
AUGUST 9, 2000, 10:30 AM

"Sit down, Agents," Skinner said as soon as Kim led Mulder and me 
into the room. 

'Skinner looks relaxed, almost, can it be?  Happy?' I thought to 
myself.

"I just got out of a meeting with the Director.  He's very pleased.
He and the Secretary of Transportation are working on commendations 
for you both."  Skinner almost smiled.

"Thank you, Sir," I said.  I looked at Mulder and he nodded.  This 
was as good a time as any.  "Sir, Agent Mulder and I completed our 
paperwork on the case would like to ask for a few days off."

"Is there a problem, Agent Scully?" he asked.  I could see his jaw 
tensing up.

"No, Sir, just the opposite."  I looked at Mulder wondering when he 
was going to jump into the conversation.  I could tell by his smirk 
that I was on my own.

"Agent Mulder and I need a few days off to set our personal affairs 
in order after the long undercover assignment," I hedged.

Skinner stared at me and then shifted his gaze to Mulder.  
Apparently something he saw in Mulder's face hinted at our secret.  
"Very well, will a week be enough?"

"I don't think we need a week right now, Sir, three days will do.  
But, we will need some time off later in the year," Mulder said 
cryptically.

"Are you going to tell me what this is all about, Agents?" Skinner 
growled after staring at the two of us for a moment.  "I can't 
protect you if I don't know what's going on."

I looked at Mulder and he shrugged.  I pulled the chain that held 
my rings out from under my collar.  "Agent Mulder and I got married 
in Reno, Nevada after the case was over."

The look on Walter Skinner's face was priceless.  I don't think 
either one of us has ever seen him speechless before.  His eyes 
were huge behind his wire rims and his mouth opened and closed 
several times before he managed to actually make a sound.

"Married?" he croaked.  "Is that--?"  He cleared his throat before 
continuing.  "Is that why you need some time off, a honeymoon?"

I glanced at Mulder and his expression told me that I should handle 
this as I saw fit.  He would back me all the way, but it was my 
call.

"Something like that, Sir," I said.  "In fact, Mulder and I would 
like to invite you to dinner with us tonight, Sir.  We consider you 
our friend and we'd like to share all the details of our marriage 
with you, off Bureau time, of course."

Skinner took the hint that there was more to the conversation than 
could be said in his office, and accepted our invitation.  We made 
arrangements to meet that evening at Duffy's, a little seafood 
place on the river.

"Do you want to begin your time off right now?" he asked.

"No, thank you, Sir," I said with a smile.  "We have a few loose 
ends to tie up for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow through Friday 
will be fine."

He nodded and we took that as our dismissal.  We rose to leave, but 
before we opened the door, he said, "Congratulations, Agents.  You 
two deserve all the happiness this marriage will bring you."

I was touched by his words and fought the tears that suddenly 
threatened to fall.  Mulder placed his hand on my shoulder and 
squeezed.  I smiled up at him briefly before looking back at our 
boss.

"Thank you, Sir," we said in unison.


XXXXXXXXXX
DUFFY'S SEAFOOD
WISCONSIN AVENUE, NW
GEORGETOWN, D.C.
AUGUST 9, 2000
7:30 PM

We had met at Duffy's after work.  Mulder and I had gone back to my 
apartment to change, but I wondered if Skinner would show up in his 
suit, directly from work.

He surprised us both when he arrived dressed in a sharp pair of 
Dockers and a knit shirt.  I must have telegraphed my approval to 
Mulder because his arm on my shoulder tightened.  I smiled up at 
him and he grinned sheepishly.  He knew I was aware of his need to 
play alpha male when we were out together.  I wanted him to 
understand that I was totally committed to him.  So far, I was 
letting him get away with it if we were not at work, until we were 
more comfortable with this new, intimate relationship.

"Scully, Mulder," Skinner nodded at us.  "This place is certainly 
popular."

I smiled as Mulder explained to Skinner the reason for our choice 
of restaurants.  "This place does have the best fresh seafood in 
the area, Sir," he said.  "But the real reason we wanted to meet 
here is that it's owned by a friend of the Gunmen and we can meet 
in a private room."

"Private?" Skinner questioned.

"Yes, the Gunmen have used it before.  It's soundproof and the 
owner has a scrambler installed in the walls that prohibits long 
range probing."  Mulder grinned.

"And just what kind of business does the owner of this restaurant 
conduct there that could possibly require that kind of security?"  
Skinner was intrigued.

"Industrial espionage," Mulder said with a straight face.  "This 
guy is famous for his crab cakes recipe and is totally paranoid 
that someone will steal his secret and put him out of business."

"Well," Skinner said with a grim look.  "I guess I'll have to try 
these fabulous crab cakes and judge for myself if they're worthy of 
this level of protection."  His sudden smile, after his 
proclamation, made both of us grin in return.

"Mulder, party of three," the hostess said.

We were guided through the restaurant to a hallway that led to the 
back.  The hostess seated us in the private room that was a 
combination office and dining area.

"Duffy will be with you in just a moment," she said.

"So, we're going to meet the famous Duffy?" Skinner asked.

"It appears so, Sir," Mulder answered.

"Please, tonight its just Walter, if you don't mind," he offered.

"All right, Walter," I agreed.  "Please, call me Dana."

He nodded as Mulder passed the menus on the table to us.  Moments 
later, Duffy appeared to take our order.  He was delighted that 
Walter chose the crab cakes.

We ordered a bottle of wine and after it was delivered, we got down 
to discussing the real reason we wanted to meet away from the 
Hoover.

"Walter, thank you for meeting us here tonight," I said.  "We 
wanted to fill you in on the details of our marriage as well as let 
you know the facts that weren't in the final report on the 
hijackings."

"There's more?"

Mulder and I exchanged glances and nodded.  I let Mulder give him 
the details.  It was still difficult for me to speak about the 
Kurts without becoming emotional.  They were my offspring, but not 
of my body or my choice.  I couldn't help liking them, wishing the 
best for them, but at the same time their very existence was an 
affront to my privacy.

Walter took the entire story in, barely raising an eyebrow.  "So 
have you heard from Kurt #1 since you parted in Reno?" 

"Yes," Mulder said.  "His name is Kevin Sorenson and he sent us a 
postcard as soon as he got over the border."

"There's more, Walter," I said quietly.  "The Kurts are clones 
created from human stem cells and alien DNA through genetic 
splicing.  Their blood is green and toxic to humans.  In order to 
create them, there had to be an original human specimen."

Skinner started at me and then looked at Mulder.  I could tell when 
he recognized the crux of my statement.  "There's a child?  They 
created a child and used its genetic material to clone the Kurts?"

I nodded, unsure of my ability to speak.  Mulder squeezed my hand 
and said, "There's a little boy, just seven years old in an 
orphanage in upper New York."

"That's why you want the time off," Walter stated.  We nodded.  "Is 
it yours, Mulder?"

"He will be now," Mulder said.  "Scully and I want to make sure 
that he is the original and that he is her biological child.  If 
that's true, and we have little reason to doubt it, we want to 
adopt him."

Skinner leaned back and stared at us in stunned silence, trying to 
internalize all the information we had just given him.  He was 
about to speak when the door opened and our food was delivered.

"Saved by the bell," Mulder teased.

After the meal, we talked extensively about the case and our plans 
for the trip to New York.  

Walter Skinner was surprisingly supportive.  "Do you think that you 
will want to continue your work on the X-Files, Dana?" Walter 
asked.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully.  "We really hadn't discussed 
what changes this will create in our lives.  We need to confirm 
this information before we make any decisions."

"But, if he is your son?" Skinner prodded.

"We will decide what we're going to do after we talk to the 
authorities at the orphanage," Mulder said.

"Keep me informed," Skinner asked just before Duffy came back into 
the room.

He left after praising Duffy's crab cakes to high heavens, causing 
our host to blush with pleasure.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE 
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 7, 2010
10:30 P.M.

"Actually, Mulder, I think he took the news about Devlin fairly 
well," I grinned.  "After all, he did give us the time off and 
agreed to keep our marriage a secret until we decided what we 
wanted to do."

Mulder hugged me tighter and grunted.  "Yeah, but he forced the 
issue about our jobs before we were ready to make our own 
decision."

"Mulder," I said as I leaned up on my elbow to look at him.  "He 
did what he felt was best.  We were not emotionally ready to quit 
working together at that point, but it was necessary."

He frowned but nodded his agreement.  "I didn't want to lose you as 
a partner, Scully.  I don't think I could have made that decision 
on my own."

I nodded my agreement.  "That's why Walter took it out of our 
hands, Mulder.  We weren't thinking clearly back then.  I know I 
was reacting too emotionally to the entire situation to decide."

"You were upset the first time we saw Devlin," Mulder mused.

I thought about our first visit with Devlin.


XXXXXXXXXX
ST. BERNADETTE'S CHILDREN'S HOME
WATKINS' GLEN
NEW YORK
AUGUST 10, 2000
3:15 PM

The drive to Watkins' Glen, New York, had been lovely, but we were 
both so tense that the beautiful countryside made little impact on 
us.

"Scully, do you think they placed him here in Watkins' Glen because 
CSM is a fan of auto racing?"  Mulder was munching sunflower seeds 
as he drove.

I gaped at him, finally realizing that he was trying to relieve 
some of the tension I was feeling.  "Why, Mulder?  Do you think 
they should have placed him nearer to Cooperstown?"

He gave me a lazy, devastating grin and nodded.  "Yes.  If he's 
going to be our son, he's going to have to learn to love baseball."

I smiled at him and told him to turn right after glancing back down 
at the directions we had printed before leaving.  We were only 
about two miles away from the orphanage, but our appointment was 
for 3:30 PM and I didn't want to be late.

Mulder reached across the seat and slid my hand into his.  "We'll 
be on time, Scully.  Don't worry."

XXXXXXXXXX

Our meeting with Mrs. Jacqueline Arnold, Administrator of the 
orphanage was going very well.  We had discussed our approach 
extensively and decided that we were going to identify ourselves as 
FBI Special Agents, but we were not going to disclose my exact 
connection to the child. 

After a long discussion, Mulder and I had decided to fudge the 
truth.  We were going to imply that the child known as Douglas K. 
Crawford was possibly my sister, Melissa's child, a child that the 
family had only found out about recently.  Since Melissa had been 
dead for some time, I felt guilty about lying about her, but it was 
the best and most logical explanation we could come up with.  At 
least it didn't sound a crazy as the truth did.  We requested a 
meeting with the child before we went any further.

I'll never forget our first glimpse of Devlin, or D.K., as he was 
called.

He was small for his age, but I could tell by his hands and feet 
that he was going to be tall when he grew up.  He had bright, 
Scully-blue eyes and red hair.  He looked so much like my brother 
Charlie did when he was a child that I was glad that I was sitting 
down when he came into the room.

Mulder realized that I was upset and took the lead with D.K.  "Hi, 
D.K.  My name is Fox Mulder and this is my partner, Dana Scully."

"Hi," he smiled.  "Are you here to 'dopt me?" he asked hopefully.

"We don't know, D.K.," he answered honestly.  "Do you want to be 
adopted?" Mulder gently questioned.

"Yeah, but it's all right if you don't.  Most people that come to 
talk to me decide they want a baby or a lit'ler kid.  They like me, 
but somehow, I never get taken home."  The little boy shrugged his 
narrow shoulders in acceptance.

Tears sprang to my eyes as he spoke.  He was so accepting of the 
facts of orphanage life.  He was adorable, obviously highly 
intelligent, but he had little hope of finding a home.

"Why don't you tell us a little about yourself, D.K.?" I asked.  I 
scooted over and held out my hand to him.  "What is your favorite 
subject in school?  Mine was always reading."

"I like to read, but I like math the best," he replied earnestly.

I smiled at Mulder over the boy's head and he smiled back.  I 
prayed that this boy was mine.  He had already grabbed my heart and 
I didn't know what I would do if he wasn't the right child.

Mrs. Arnold came back a few minutes later to collect D.K.  "It's 
almost suppertime, Douglas.  You need to wash up before you eat."

"Can Mr. Fox and Miss Dana eat supper with me?" D.K. asked 
hopefully.

"No, not today, Douglas.  Mr. Mulder and Ms. Scully are only here 
for their first visit.  I don't think they're quite ready for the 
dining room experience yet," she said as she laughed good-
naturedly.  "Run along to your group now."

"Bye Mr. Fox," he said as he shook hands with Mulder.  "Bye, Miss 
Dana."  He held out his hand to shake, but I couldn't let him go 
like that.  I opened my arms and he threw himself into my embrace.

I kissed the top of his head and whispered, "Bye, D.K.  We'll see 
you soon."

He smiled sadly and nodded.  He walked out the door and shut it 
quietly, but we could hear the pounding of his little feet as he 
ran down the hall.

Mulder spoke first.  "He certainly is a charmer."  He smiled at me 
and squeezed my hand.  "I can't figure out why he's not been 
adopted before now."

"I have to tell you that I'm surprised," Mrs. Arnold said.  "D.K. 
is a charming, intelligent little boy, but he usually does not act 
as eager to impress the prospective parents as he did with you 
two."  She glanced at me and smiled.  "Perhaps it's your red hair."

I looked at Mulder and he nodded.  "Mrs. Arnold, do you think that 
we could have a PDR run on Douglas?  He looks just like my younger 
brother did when he was D.K.'s age.  So much so, that I suspect he 
may very well be a Scully."

"What if he is your sister's child?  What is your interest in 
D.K.?" Mrs. Arnold asked.

Once again, Mulder and I exchanged glances and he nodded.  "If he 
is a blood relative of mine, we want to adopt him," I said, 
suddenly sure of our path.

Mrs. Arnold was shocked.  "Ms. Scully, it's extremely difficult for 
a single woman to adopt a child, let alone two single people ..."

"Mrs. Arnold," Mulder interrupted her.  "Dr. Scully and I were 
recently married."

"Mr. Mulder, that only makes it more complicated.  Very few 
organizations like to throw a child into a situation where the 
relationship is not a stable, long term one."

"I know that you do not know us, Mrs. Arnold, but we would like you 
to consider us seriously as candidates for this adoption.  If D.K. 
is Dana's blood relative, we feel we are the best choice for 
parents for him.  We have been partners for seven years and will be 
able to provide several references that will attest to the 
stability of our relationship," Mulder said sincerely.

"Are there other couples interested in D.K.?" I asked, suddenly 
seized by the awful thought of losing my child just as I found him, 
like Emily.

"No, most couples who are looking to adopt are looking for a 
younger child," she said sadly.  She stared at us for a moment.  
"Let's start at the beginning.  I'll arrange for a blood test to be 
done on D.K.  Our house physician is going to be here tomorrow.  Do 
you think that you could be here around 10:00 AM for a blood test?" 
she asked.

"Yes, that would be fine."  We said our goodbyes and left.

Three months later, we were granted custody of Douglas Kurt 
Crawford.  Three months after that, the adoption became final.

Continued in part 2 of 10

TITLE:          TRUCKIN' 2: KEEP ON TRUCKIN' Part 2 of 10


XXXXXXXXXXX
PART 3 (NC-17)
MULDER RESIDENCE 
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 7, 2010
10:45 PM

Scully was quiet for such a long time, I thought she had fallen 
asleep.

"Mulder," she said, "I think you're right.  We should tell Devlin 
this weekend.  Is that all right with you?  We could ask Mom to 
take the twins for the night on Friday."

I looked down at her and smiled.  "I think that's a great idea, 
unless Devlin has plans for Friday night."

"We'll talk to him tomorrow and make sure he keeps it open."

I smiled at her again, nuzzling her ear.  "I have plans for 
tonight.  How about you, Scully?"

XXXXXXXXXX

"I thought you'd never ask," I sighed as I rolled over on top of 
him, straddling his thighs.  I looked down at him and the magnitude 
of my love for this man once again swept through me, making me weak 
and giddy.  I leaned down and kissed his lips gently, moving on to 
his cheeks and nose and eyelids.  "I love you, Fox Mulder," I said.
I was as surprised as he was at the quivering of my voice.

"Hey, hey, hey, what brought this on?" he asked.  He soothed me 
with the sound of his voice and the touch of his hands as he began 
to gently stroke my shoulders.

"I don't know.  Nothing.  Everything."  I couldn't tell him what I 
was feeling, because I didn't know myself.

"Scully, I love you, too," he assured me.  He smiled into my eyes. 
"Are you still upset by Devlin's remark?"

"No," I denied immediately.  "Yes," I admitted.  "I know that 
Devlin loves you, Mulder.  You've been a fantastic father to him 
and to the twins.  It's just--" I broke off.

"Just?" he asked.

"I don't know," I wailed.  I threw myself down on his chest and 
sobbed.  Everything was so confusing.  My love for Mulder wasn't a 
mournful thing.  It was happiness and satisfaction and everything I 
had ever wanted in a relationship.  Devlin and the twins were a 
blessing in my life.  That left only one thing.  "It's ... it's," I 
choked out, unable to say it.

"Scully, are you worried about what Dr. Gibson told you last week?"

Mulder's gentle words clarified my thoughts.  "Yes, I guess I am." 

He pulled me closer and kissed me, not gently this time.  "I read 
the information that you brought home about pre-menopausal women 
and I know what you're thinking."

I gave him a startled look.  "What do you mean?"

He sighed and stared at me for a moment before replying.  "I know 
you are thinking that we put off having more children too long and 
that makes you sad because you feel it's too late now."

"Mulder, we have three wonderful children.  I have a good job and a 
fantastic marriage.  Why would you think I have unresolved regret 
over having more children?"

"Because I know you, Scully," he said with a chuckle.  "You're not 
usually this emotional.  You've been quiet and introspective since 
your appointment."

I nodded and shrugged.

"Scully, it's not too late to have another baby, you know?" he 
whispered.

"Mulder!"  His statement surprised me.  "You know that late in life 
pregnancies have many additional risk factors involved."

"I read the information, Scully.  I know that pre-menopausal women 
who chose pregnancy face health challenges and an increased risk of 
delivering children with Down's Syndrome and other genetic 
problems, but that wouldn't be a problem for us.  You've kept 
yourself in shape.  All your healthy 'young' eggs were inseminated 
with my healthy 'young' sperm and refrozen.  They're still viable.  
If you want another baby or two, we could still ..."

I stared at this man I've loved for so long in wonder.  He knew me 
so well, it was, downright spooky.  That thought made me grin as I 
said, "Mulder, I won't lie to you.  I have thought about another 
baby, but realistically, I don't think we should consider it.  I 
think I'm more concerned about what to do with the fertilized eggs 
that are left than I am about having more children."  He nodded and 
I knew that he agreed with my decision.  "Right now, however, I 
think we need to work through our problems with Devlin before we 
consider the entire issue."  I kissed him and smiled.  "Besides, 
whatever made you think I would want to go through a pregnancy 
again, let alone have teenagers when I'm sixty?" I said teasingly.

He grinned up at me and said, "We are going to discuss it later 
though?"

I smiled back.  "I think we should discuss it.  But not tonight, 
okay?"

"All right by me," he growled.  "I've got other things on my mind 
right now."

"Oh, is that what you call this?" I said as I wiggled my hips over 
his erection.

XXXXXXXXXXX NC-17 PORTION XXXXXXXXXX 

"Scully, have I told you yet tonight how much I love you?"  Mulder 
gently slid me off him and rolled over on top of me.  "How much I 
love to kiss you and hold you and sink my cock into your luscious, 
sexy little body?"

"Keep going, partner.  You're almost to the good part," I whispered 
into his ear.

"You mean this?" he said as his lips kissed mine, "Or this?"  He 
gently stroked my breasts, pinching the nipples with just enough 
pressure to send jolts of white-hot desire from their tips to my 
sex.  

"Or were you referring to this?"  He slid into me with a strong 
thrust of his hips.  His erection was long and thick and hot and 
felt fantastic.  His words had made me wet and needy and when he 
began to move, I knew it was not going to be long before I would 
find my release.

He moved against me, searching for the angle that he knew would 
drive me over the edge every time, even in this position.  I gave 
myself up to pleasure as he began to surge up into me.  Even after 
all these years, my passion for this man was unparalleled.  We both 
experienced long, satisfying climaxes that exhausted us and we 
quickly fell asleep.

XXXXXXXXXXX END NC-17 PORTION XXXXXXXXXX

I woke up with a start.  Scully was draped over me like a blanket, 
her silky length of red hair tickling my nose.  I lifted my hand 
from her waist and stroked through her hair, relieving the tickle 
in my nose, but reviving the need in my johnson. 

If any one had told me before I met Scully that when I was almost 
fifty years old I would be married to a woman whom I loved and we 
would still be having incredible sex several times a week, I would 
have laughed in their faces.  

If they had said that I was going to be part of a happy family with 
that woman, I would have tried to have them committed.  In fact, 
before Scully, I didn't really believe that I would live to be 
forty.  I had accepted the fact that I would be killed in the line 
of duty or while I was off trying to find Samantha.

Then, into my life came this little spy, all spit and polish, piss 
and vinegar.  I let the memories of our early years cascade through 
my mind.  I was still amazed that we ever got to this point.  I 
must have been very good in a previous life to be blessed with a 
woman like Dana Katherine Scully-Mulder.  All the crap we had lived 
through, all the pain, had made us stronger and bound us together 
for eternity.

Scully wiggled and murmured, "Cold, Mulder, cold."

I started to pull the cover over her when I heard a noise in the 
hall.  Maybe it was the thoughts of our dangerous early years, or 
just my basic paranoia, but I could 'feel' something wasn't right 
in the house.  There wasn't a definite threat that I could 
identify, or a noise that sounded out of place, just a sense of 
'wrongness' about the night.

I slid Scully off me and covered her up.  She softly grunted but 
snuggled down into the covers, never waking.  Silently, I rose and 
pulled my gun from the lock box that was hidden in the wall next to 
the bed.  Despite a lack of use, the hinges were silent and I 
grabbed the gun and cartridge, sliding it home with an almost 
imperceptible 'snick'.

I stood by our bedroom door listening and I knew I was right.  
Someone was in our home, coming up the stairs, walking down the 
hall.  I slid the door open to get a look at the invader and saw 
the outline of a tall man sneaking up the hall towards me.  He drew 
even with the hall bathroom door and the faint glow from the 
nightlight slashed across his features.  Devlin.

I pulled the door open silently and stepped into the hall.  "What 
the hell are you doing up at this hour?" I hissed at him.  I held 
the gun in my right hand, slightly back and out of sight.  I knew 
I'd startled him, but he had scared me.  Our kids were not night 
wanderers.  Every one of them worked and played hard during the day 
and slept just as hard at night.  I'd always been thankful that 
none of my children were plagued by insomnia or nightmares, though 
I had almost expected Devlin to have them.

"I had to go to the bathroom," he said in a sleepy voice.

I stared at him for a few seconds.  He was lying.  He had been 
walking up the hall from the stairs.  Devlin was definitely hiding 
something, but I decided to let it slide until tomorrow.  I said, 
"Oh, all right.  Try to be quiet.  Don't wake the twins."

"Right-o," Devlin whispered cheekily.  

He was definitely hiding something.  I nodded and then watched him 
move on down the hall to his room.  I'd have to check it out 
tomorrow.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 8, 2010
1:00 AM

I waited for everyone to go to bed and snuck downstairs to my 
computer.  It still aggravated me that Dad made me keep it in the 
den.  He was adamant about keeping the family together as much as 
possible.  He didn't want me 'hiding' out in my room for hours on 
the computer or some crap like that.  I thought of it as another 
way my parents wanted to control my life.  

I wasn't resuming my game now.  Even Langly was in bed at this 
hour.  I had bigger fish to fry.  I had been working on my Dad's 
computer last week and found a freaking huge block of data that I 
couldn't access.  That had put up a red flag for me.  I actually 
had been looking around to see if I could find any information on 
my adoption when I ran into the firewall that protected the files.  
My time was limited on Dad's machine so I knew I had some planning 
to do before I could break into it.  I was finally ready to go.

I booted up the computer and got on the 'net.  I slipped the CD I'd 
written my program on into the drive and began hacking into my 
father's computer in his office.  I'd networked it to this one when 
he was at M&M's soccer game last week.  I had a wireless router 
modem in my room that connected the two.  They never questioned the 
stuff I set up for the computer.  It was way beyond them.  Unless 
one of the uncles came over unexpectedly, it was way beyond most 
people.

I came upon the firewall, and easily guessed my Dad's password, 
TwoM&Ms, and I was in!  I started opening up his folders and 
looking at the files.  I checked the Bureau files first.  I came 
upon a folder marked, 'Monty Propps'.  I'd heard that name before 
and clicked on it.

I squinted at the screen, clicking on the first file.  It was a 
scan of a newspaper article with the headline:  'Mulder Outwits 
Monty'.

I read on:  

**** To those inside the FBI, it was no surprise that rookie, hot 
shot Special Agent Fox Mulder was instrumental in capturing the 
serial killer who has terrorized the D.C. area for months.  Agent 
Mulder has only been with the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit as a 
profiler for one year, but he's already made a name for himself as 
one of their top profilers.  "He has a rare gift," says Special 
Agent in Charge Reggie Purdue.  "We're lucky to have him.  Agents 
with intuition and genius like Fox Mulder only come along once or 
so in a generation.  I'm confident in saying the police would never 
have caught Propps without Agent Mulder's monograph and profile," 
Purdue said. ****

The article went on to detail the months-long manhunt for the 
notorious serial killer who was raping and murdering prostitutes.
Not until the Bureau was called in to assist, and my father put on 
the case, did they come up with any viable leads. 

I closed the file and opened the next one, reading carefully.  I 
heard a creak and jumped, looking toward the staircase.  All was 
quiet.  All I could hear was the snick of the clock on the mantle.  
I went back to reading.  One was a case report, another police 
reports, another three were more newspaper articles.  I wondered 
why he never told me about this.

When I got to the actual profile, it was password protected.  I ran 
my program on it and it decoded it fairly quickly:  'TrustNo1'.  I 
opened it and read a detailed profile.  Further down, in my 
father's own words, he told how he had constructed it from a couple 
of crime scene visits and bits of information culled from the 
police case reports, articles in the media, autopsy reports on the 
victims and crime scene photos.  I was truly impressed that he had 
been able to write this profile and be so on-the-money from such 
sketchy information.  I knew almost nothing about profiling except 
that he still did it for a living, along with his psych practice.  
However, I thought these things were formula for the most part.  
After reading this profile and his explanation of how he came to 
his conclusions, I realized that, in my father's case anyway, they 
were anything but formula.  They were nothing less than brilliant.  

I spent the next hour going through various VCS files.  I knew they 
were confidential but I had no intentions of telling anyone.  I 
wasn't going to go into active patient files though.  I knew if I 
were ever caught, he'd really blow his top over that.  Frankly, I 
didn't really think they would be that interesting anyway.

I moved on to his personal folders and cruised through boring 
accounting, mortgage, and bank account information.  Then I came 
across a folder called 'Journal'.  My dad kept a journal?  This 
could be interesting.

Of course it was password protected.  I set about cracking the code 
and to my surprise, I was having trouble.  I recognized immediately 
that this folder was protected with some program far more 
sophisticated than my father could ever have come up with.  The 
Lone Gunmen must have helped him with this one.  Damn, the whole 
thing was totally encrypted!

I whispered, "Okay, Langly, you're on.  Let's see if I can get by 
you, dude.  This is definitely your work.  Devlin's my name, 
hacking's my game!"

I spent the better part of the next two hours and couldn't get into 
it.  Damn, they were good, or Langly was anyway.  I wrote some more 
code and burned it onto a CD.  I reinserted it and set it to run.  
I changed the settings to have the screen saver with a password 
come up in thirty seconds and left it to work overnight.  I was 
yawning, and my folks would be up in three hours.

I went upstairs.  I almost made it to my room, too.  I jumped when 
my father stepped into the hallway and said, "What the hell are you 
doing up at this hour?"  He stood there with his right hand 
slightly back and out of sight.

He seemed larger than life somehow, his shadow looming large behind 
him.  I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.  "I had to 
go to the bathroom," I said, faking a sleepy voice.

He stared at me for a few seconds as if trying to read my mind and 
then said, "Oh, all right.  Try to be quiet.  Don't wake the 
twins."

"Right-o," I whispered, and slipped into my room.  Whew.  That was 
a close one.  I wasn't sure, but I could swear Dad had a gun in his 
hand.  I didn't even know he and Mom still had one in the house.  
There was a lot more to Fox Mulder than the easy-going house-
husband that he had always appeared to be.  He knew I was lying.  I 
could feel it, and yet, he had let it go.  Interesting.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 9, 2010
1:00 AM

Waiting all day was freaking torture, but it was finally time.  I 
slinked out of my room in stocking feet and headed down the stairs, 
skipping over the fifth step that creaked.  I nearly ran to the 
computer, and punched in my password to erase the screen saver.  

God Bless America!  My righteous code had done the trick.  My mouth 
hung open though as I read that it took it seven hours to get 
through Langly's walls and protections!  'Holy Shit!  I tip my hat 
to you, dude,' I thought.  

I actually felt my palms sweating as I carefully clicked on the 
file after memorizing the password.  I took a deep breath and began 
to read, starting at the date of the first entry, May, 2000.  
Jesus, this was ten years worth of journaling.  I checked the size 
of the file and it was enormous once it was unzipped and 
uncompressed.  I had a lot of reading ahead of me.  I set the alarm 
on my watch, knowing my tendency to get absorbed and lose track of 
time.  I had about three hours before I had to hit the sack.

XXXXXXXXXX
Journal - May 14, 2000

***** Scully's File:  Well, we're on the trail now.  I'm undercover 
as Mulder's wife, and I've never been so nervous in my entire life. 
Someone broke into the truck last night.  I'm scared, but I know 
we'll figure this out.  Cooner has turned out to be a reliable 
friend and the Gunmen have come through with this fabulous 
encryption program so that anyone looking at these entries will 
find dull, daily journaling that means nothing to them.  

Mulder and I are on the verge of many things, one of them being an 
intimate relationship.  I'm more nervous about that than I am about 
the case.  I'm excited too.  I know this is inevitable.  I know I 
love him.  He breaks my heart every time he pouts when I push him 
away, but I really feel we should solve this case first.  We need 
to be alert.  Freshly showered Mulder is a hard thing to resist 
though.  God, I hope I don't blow it.  We can concentrate on our 
relationship and all the implications later.  Right now, we have 
hijackers to catch.  

I really enjoyed the awe on Mulder's face when I pulled a Rambo on 
the hijackers today.  The grenade launcher stopped them when they 
tried to grab us but I was pretty tense when the bullets starting 
flying.  We got away though, thanks to luck and some fancy driving 
on Mulder's part, but for how long?  I can tell Mulder admires my 
skills as an equal, but other times, his tendency toward protecting 
me is aggravating.  I don't want a romantic relationship to 
interfere with our working relationship.  *****

I quickly realized there were two folders, one for my mother, the 
other for my father.  Under those, were two subfolders, one for the 
job and one for personal entries.  I decided to read the personal 
folders first.  I'd start with my mother's and read a few days and 
then switch to my father's and read his version of events.  I 
smiled at some of the differences.

***** Mulder's File:  I'm going absolutely nuts.  She stopped our 
make out session again.  I'm so agitated right now I could scream 
and I know I won't sleep until I jerk off.  Finding a place to do 
it is another thing entirely.  I can't exactly do it in the sleeper 
of the truck while she's driving!  I'm not going to do it in the 
truck stops we use.  Some of those guys are damned scary.

She says we should wait until the case is over to cross the final 
line in our relationship and become intimate.  She says it will be 
a distraction.  

Well, that's an understatement.  I don't think I could possibly be 
more distracted than I am now.  It's all I can think about.  Then 
she has to tease me and wear those tight tank tops.  Jesus, I'm 
only human.  What the hell does she want from me?  I don't agree 
with her.  I think being together would relieve a lot of my tension 
and anticipation and distraction, but I will wait.  I've waited 
seven years.  What are a few more weeks?  Christ, though, knowing 
it's going to happen is like an elephant in the middle of the room.  
We both know it's there and we're trying to ignore it.  

I need to concentrate.  Solve this fucking case and get on to the 
good stuff.  The quicker I come up with a solution, the quicker we 
will be together.  Think, Mulder, damn it!  What are these guys 
hiding?  Where are they hiding?  Where will they strike next?  
Hopefully, we wiped out half their team this afternoon.

Scully was so unbelievably magnificent.  I want to protect her but 
know I can't.  I have to restrain myself from taking on all the 
danger and chances so she doesn't have to.  That will never work 
with my Scully.  She has to do things her way.  Even though I was 
scared to death, it also turned me on to see her go postal on those 
bastards. 

How sick am I?  Scully gets aggressive and I get a boner.  Scully 
fires a gun and I get a hard on.  I'm pathetic.  *****

Whew!  It squicked me out, a bit, to be reading about my father 
getting boners over my mother.  Intellectually, I knew it must have 
happened, but I never really gave it much thought.  She had the 
twins within a year after I came to live with them.  They'd always 
been careful not to let us catch them or hear them having sex.  My 
Dad wasn't a bad looking man for his age.  My mother wasn't so bad 
either.  I'd always wondered if they adopted me because of my red 
hair.  Mom has red hair and that usually makes people assume that I 
am really their kid.  I sometimes thought I might be a Scully, an 
illegitimate son of Uncle Bill's or Uncle Charlie's.  Naw.  Not 
Uncle Charlie's.  Maybe Bill's or even Melissa's?  Hummm.

I raked my fingers through my curly hair and scratched my scalp.  
We all had blue eyes too.  Although most redheads did have blue or 
green eyes as a rule, but I knew I wasn't theirs.  Look at M&M.  
They are both dead-on kids of my parents.  You can see both of them 
in all their features.  They're dark like Dad, but Mairin looks 
exactly like pictures of my mom that Gramma has.  It shouldn't bug 
me, but it does.  I've had dreams about my real parents, wondering 
what they looked like and why they gave me up.  It must have been 
pretty bad because I couldn't remember a lot from before the last 
orphanage I was dumped at.

I still felt guilty about yelling at Dad the other night.  Shit, 
what made me say that?  'You're not my father!'  What was I 
thinking?  He looked like I'd slapped him.  Damn.  I knew I 
shouldn't have said it.  I didn't mean it the way it came out.  
It's just been on my mind lately, and he pushed all my buttons.  
Shit.  He seemed to have forgiven me, though.  When he hugged me, I 
swear I could feel his pain and relief that we were okay.  He 
hasn't mentioned it since, and I know he didn't tell my mother.  
Even though she's been out of town, she would have been all over my 
ass if she knew.  She doesn't tolerate disrespect in any form.

He was right.  He was the only father I'd ever known.  He'd never 
favored the twins over me.  He treated us all equally.  If I 
thought about it, he really wasn't a bad guy.  So why did I resent 
his happiness so much?  I looked at the twins and was jealous 
sometimes.  They knew who their parents were.  They looked so much 
like Dad that there was no mistaking the resemblance, especially 
Mac's nose.  They had no doubts about where they came from.

I remember when I first realized they were really going to take me 
home with them.  I hadn't believed it at first.  People came, but 
they always wanted the younger kids.  I didn't remember any of my 
life before age five, before the orphanage in New York.  I did, 
however, remember the two years in the orphanage and the agony of 
wondering if anyone would ever want me.  When I met them, they 
seemed so cool.  I wanted them to choose me, but I knew I was 
setting myself up for disappointment.

I didn't believe it when they asked me if I wanted to go home with 
them.  I wouldn't allow myself to believe right up to the day when 
they finally came to take me home.  I'd been astonished, so sure 
right up until the last minute that it wouldn't come true.  I'd 
been so happy then, and so eager to please them lest they send me 
back.  It still surprised me to remember Dad telling me I didn't 
have to be perfect for them to want me to stay.  I just had to be 
me.  I didn't believe him for years.  What a dork.  At seven, 
though, I didn't know that they couldn't just send me back.

But where had I come from?  That was the sixty-four thousand dollar 
question.  I wasn't going to find out tonight, that's for sure.  I 
read a couple more entries from each of them, morbidly repelled and 
fascinated at the same time as I read of their quandaries and 
emotional state over getting together.  It was weird to think of 
them so nervous with one another.  They were so comfortable now.  I 
couldn't imagine my mother ever having been unsure of anything.  

She was certainly unsure of my father in the beginning, or at least 
unsure of what being involved with him would bring.  Reading her 
descriptions of his sexy body I could have done without.  I 
probably also didn't need to know how terrific she was at blowjobs, 
according to my father. 

On the other hand, reading about their mutual admiration for their 
skills and deductive thinking was rather fascinating.  They truly 
were best friends and I felt jealousy rise up in me in like bile.  
Would I ever have that kind of relationship with anyone?  I was a 
computer geek for God's sake.  I was six foot tall, and I worked 
out.  I was athletic, but I was still a tech head.  Most girls my 
age bored the hell out of me.  We had nothing in common.  On top of 
which, I couldn't stand 'gigglers'.  God, I hated the sound of 
giggling.  It was like finger nails on a chalkboard to me.  One of 
the best things I could think to say about Mairin was that she 
didn't giggle. 

I realized I wanted someone more sophisticated, more mature.  I 
didn't want a giggling airhead for a girlfriend, and certainly not 
for a life mate, but I was lonely.  It struck me when Dad and I 
were talking the other day.  He'd said he wondered if I could 
imagine how lonely he was.  Yes, I could.  I was that lonely now, 
despite having my parents and the twins around.  I felt like I had 
no one to talk to who understood me.  I felt like the Lone Gunmen 
were the only ones who I didn't bore and who didn't bore me.  

No girls wanted to talk about Virtual D&D and computer hardware
or programming.  They simply weren't interested.  They were still
getting off on going to the mall, and spending an hour putting on 
make up.  I knew in a peripheral sort of way that I was handsome.  
Enough people told me that.  Enough girls flirted with me, and 
giggled around me.  However, I simply had found no one that sparked 
my interest.  There was no one I wanted to spend time with, no one 
I wanted to get to know better.

This was my life, sitting in front of my computer at 4:00 AM 
reading my parents private journal.  'Pretty pathetic, huh?' I 
thought to myself.  Nonetheless, I knew that I would keep reading.  
I carefully closed everything down and shut down the computer.  I 
crept up the stairs and managed to get in bed without alerting the 
press this time.  I had a feeling by the time I was done reading I 
was going to know more than I ever wanted to know about my 
'parents'.


XXXXXXXXXX
PART 4 (PG)
THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 9, 2010
7:30 AM

I stumbled through breakfast and got to school early enough to grab 
a coffee at Starbucks and spend some time in the gym before school 
began.  M&M had to be at school early today of all days.  I 
usually drove them when Mom was called out early, but I could have
really used the extra hour of sleep after being up until after 
4:00 AM reading my parents' journals.

I still had a residual feeling of resentment.  It was stupid to 
feel angry with your parents for loving each other like mine did.  
I mean, more than half my class came from divorced or one-parent 
homes and most of those kids would have thought I was crazy for 
resenting their love.

I decided to go to the gym and shoot some hoops before my first 
class.  I entered the gym and dumped my backpack next to the door.  
There were several other guys there already, along with a group of 
giggling cheerleader-types at the other end of the room.  I chose 
to ignore the others and began to work up a good sweat practicing 
my lay-ups and long shots.

I was feeling pretty good by the time I decided I needed to get to 
class.  I pulled the towel I kept in my backpack out and wiped my 
face.  My coffee was cold but I drank the rest of it anyway.  I 
would need the caffeine before the morning was over.

I let my gaze wander down towards the far end of the gym and was 
surprised to see the cheerleaders still there.  They usually left 
in plenty of time to fix their hair and makeup before class.  God 
forbid that anyone saw them as less than perfect during school 
hours.  They were talking to the new kid I noticed briefly last 
week and I was surprised.  This guy was short and definitely not a 
jock.  He was dressed in sturdy work boots, ill-fitting chinos 
about two sizes too big and a hooded sweatshirt.  Not exactly a 
fashion statement, but I could tell from here that they were clean.

What were they up to now?  I moved across the floor to go out the 
door nearest them.  I was curious.  Before I grew to my current 
height of six feet and out of a pubescent case of acne, I had been 
on the receiving end of the 'popular girl' treatment several times.
I tuned into what they were saying and realized immediately that 
they weren't playing nice.  This kid didn't act like he had what it 
took to fend them off.  They had surrounded him and were taking 
turns making verbal jabs at him.  According to them his clothes 
were wrong, his hair was wrong, his glasses were geeky.  They were 
going in for the kill.

"So Quinci, you going to try out for cheerleader?" Mandy Jenkins 
said with a sneer.

The new kid mumbled something and tried to walk around the girls 
who had him surrounded.  They closed in the circle and he stepped 
back into the center.

"What was that?  I didn't hear you," Heather Long said 
aggressively.

"Yeah," echoed the rest.

"I said, I have no interest in cheerleading," the new kid said in a 
husky voice.

I'm no expert, but I do have a younger siblings and I could swear I 
heard tears in this kid's voice.  'Wait a minute,' I thought.  'Why 
are they asking this guy if he wants to be a cheerleader?'  Ah, 
shit!  This poor sap was probably gay and someone had leaked it to 
one of the mindless wonders.  They were not known for their 
kindness and charity with kids who were different. 

"Who'd want to look at someone like you in a cheerleading outfit?" 
Mandy spoke up again.  "You'd probably get a five o'clock shadow on 
your legs before the game was over!"  She laughed heartily at her 
own joke.  The others joined in.

"I SAID," the new guy shouted.  "I'm not interested in your shallow 
little clique and your mindless display of your ability to jump, 
scream, and preen at the same time.  Now, let me go."

"What's the matter?  Don't we turn you on, IQ?" Sara Jones purred.

The new guy swore and tried to push through the group, but all of 
his antagonists were at least six inches taller than him.  He was 
pushed back into the middle of the circle.

"Oh, not stimulating enough, huh?"  Brittany Williams laughed.

"Stimulating?  The Brain doesn't need any stimulating, isn't that 
right, IQ?  According to Ms. Haynes, you are a smart one.  I bet 
you figured out a long time ago that no one was ever going to want 
to give you a second look," Alicia Andrews taunted.

The new guy looked down at his feet and didn't reply.

"What's the matter, IQ?  Nothing to say?" Mandy asked sweetly.

The kid said something but I didn't catch it.  

"What!" Brittany shrieked.  She obviously had heard the remark the 
first time.

"I said, at least my IQ is bigger than my bust size, you moron!" he 
bellowed.

I had to bit my lip to keep from laughing.  This kid had more to 
him than I thought.  However, from the looks of the rest of the 
pack, things were really going to get ugly now.

"Hey, IQ!" I yelled.  "Mr. Hamilton wants to see you.  Come on, 
I'll show you where his office is."  Mr. Hamilton was the Vice-
Principal of Discipline and not even the Witless Wonders would 
ignore his summons.  I pushed into the circle of blondes and gave 
each of them a hard look.  Not one of them was a bad person away 
from their clique, but together, they were total bitches.

I put my arm over the shoulder of the new guy and pulled him 
through the circle and out the door with me.  He allowed me to pull 
him along until we were in the hall then he shrugged his shoulders 
and stepped away from me.

I told him Mr. Hamilton wasn't really looking for him and said a 
couple of things to him, trying to break the ice.  When I looked 
down into his face for the first time I was stunned.  Whoever this 
IQ was, he wasn't a guy.

XXXXXXXXXX

Shit.  Shit!  SHIT!  Of all days to have a run in with the most 
popular girls in school, The Cheerleaders, no less!  Christos!  
Right in front of one of the best looking guys in school, Devlin 
Mulder.  God!  I saw him on my first day at school, last week.  
He's in a lot of my advanced placement classes because, according 
to all the teachers, he's the smartest kid in school.  He's a 
computer genius and a jock, not to mention so damn sexy he took my 
breath away.  I didn't know if I could speak.

"You okay?" he said as I pulled away from him.

I couldn't stand to have his arm around me one more second.  I felt 
like I was going to hyperventilate if I didn't get away from him.

"Yeah," I mumbled, still staring at the floor.

"IQ?  Is that a nickname?" he asked.  He looked down at me just as 
I looked up at him and the look on his face would have been comical 
if it hadn't hurt me so much.  "What the ...?  You're a girl!"

I was getting hot so I pulled my hood off.  I knew the heat was a 
combination of desire for him and anger over his words.  "Yeah, so 
what?" I said automatically.  'Good one Izz!' I thought and had to 
stifle a groan.

He was obviously as embarrassed as I was by his words.  "I'm sorry! 
I didn't know you were a girl.  I only saw you from the rear and 
didn't realize, I mean," he stuttered and trailed off again, 
blushing but there was a smile on his lips.  

It began to be funny to me, too.  Damn!  Even when he blushed, he 
was gorgeous.

"I'm sorry.  Could we start again?  Hi, I'm Devlin Mulder," he said 
and put out his hand to shake mine.

I looked up into his crystal blue eyes and knew I was in trouble.  
"I'm Isabella Quinci.  I just transferred here from Pittsburgh, and 
I don't like being called IQ."  I lifted my hand to shake with him, 
praying that the trembling I felt in my knees wasn't affecting my 
hands, too.  As our fingers met, I felt a shock of electricity 
shoot up my arm.  I almost dropped his hand and jumped back but his 
grip tightened and he drew me closer.

XXXXXXXXXX

'Whoa!  What the hell just happened?' I thought.  When our hands 
met, it was if a bolt of electricity had struck, and I 
instinctively pulled her closer to me.  What did I think I was 
going to do?  Protect her?  Kiss her?  Well, there was an idea.

I stood there gazing down into the most beautiful, intelligent pair 
of brown eyes I had ever seen.  Thick black lashes about a mile 
long swept down to hide the emotions she was telegraphing and 
rested like thick, fuzzy, wooly-bugger caterpillars on her cheeks.

Okay, so I'm not a poet, but I know beauty when I see it.  I stood 
there holding her hand and struggling to find something to say, 
something cool that would make her think I was dateable, when the 
first bell rang for period one.

We both jumped apart and laughed nervously.  "I guess I better get 
going.  I have American Democracy first period.  What do you have?"

"I'm in Phys. Ed. class first period.  That's, um, why I was in the 
gym," she said, blushing.

"Yeah, well, I'll see you," I grunted.

"Yeah," she said and it sounded sad.

She turned to walk back into the gym and I turned to get to my 
class.  She stopped and peeked in the window to the gym, making 
sure the wolf pack was gone just as I turned to get another look at 
her. 

"Hey!  Bella!  What period do you have lunch?" I yelled.

She gave me a 'who me?' look.  After looking around to make sure, 
again, that I was talking to her, she said, "I have B lunch period. 
How about you?"

"I have B lunch too.  I'll see you, okay?"

She nodded and slipped into the gym as the second bell rang.

Shit!  I had two minutes to make it to class!  I took off at a dead 
run.  I slid into my seat, still smiling just before the final bell 
rang.  There was no way I was going off campus to eat lunch today.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bella.  He called me Bella.  No one but my Nana from Italy ever 
called me Bella.  It means beautiful in Italian, and Devlin Mulder 
just called me Bella.  I couldn't stop thinking about the last few 
minutes of our conversation this morning.  He called me IQ at first 
because that's what the others had used.  I hate IQ, but what was 
he supposed to yell?  'Hey, new kid?'  Yeah, that would have been 
better.  However, when he'd actually known my name, he didn't call 
me Izzy or Quinci, like most kids did.  He called me Bella.

I couldn't wait until lunch.  I wondered if he was in any of my 
Tuesday classes.


XXXXXXXXXX
THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 9, 2010
'B' Lunch, 12:15 PM

I hadn't eaten lunch in the cafeteria since I got my driver's 
license.  Even when I brought my lunch, I usually left the school 
grounds and ate at the park down the road, especially after I got 
Dad's old lap top rebuilt.  I walked through the doors, and glanced 
over at the long, slow line.  Once again, I was glad that my Mom 
and Dad insisted that we pack our own lunches every day.

I looked around, trying to act cool.  All my buds had 'A' lunch 
this semester.  I nodded to a couple of guys on my track team and 
kept looking.  There she was, all alone in the corner.  If I hadn't 
been looking for her, I would have missed her.  I walked over to 
the end of her table.  She seemed to be engrossed in a book, but up 
close I could see that she had dual ear-buds in her ears.

"Bella," I said, as I touched her arm.  "Is this seat taken?"

Even though I tried not to startle her, she jumped and dropped her 
book.  I had to laugh aloud.  Behind the thick copy of Grey's 
Anatomy was a small Palm Pilot.  She had been playing a computer 
game!

"Devlin!  I didn't see you come in.  Sure, have a seat."  She 
looked up at me and smiled.  She tried to pull the ear-buds out 
discretely.

I was, once again, mesmerized by her eyes.  Only this time she 
wasn't wearing her glasses and I could see her entire face.  Her 
skin was smooth and was a creamy, golden color like coffee with a 
lot of cream.  Her velvety brown eyes were wide set and fringed 
with those incredible lashes.  Her brows were like dark wings that 
framed her eyes.  Her nose was perfect.  Her smile was wide and her 
teeth were even and white.

I sat down right next to her instead of in the chair across the 
table.  I leaned close to her and smiled.  "What were you playing?"

She darted a sideways look at me from under her lashes, and I 
inhaled sharply.  I closed my eyes.  She smelled so damn good.  It 
was like Christmas and the first day of spring wrapped up together. 
Or maybe, more like spring rain.  No, more like a crisp autumn day.
Hell!  Maybe I'd never write a poem or be recognized for my verbal 
ability to sweep a woman off her feet, but I knew when I smelled 
heaven.  I opened my eyes and caught her staring at me.  I looked 
down at the game in her hand and gave her what my Dad calls 'the 
Scully eyebrow'.

A dimple danced on her cheek for a moment before her smile swept it 
away.  "It's an old game called 'XIII'.  I found it and tweaked it 
a little to make it more exciting.  Do you want to play?"

"Can I play and eat at the same time?" I asked with a grin.

"No, you really need to concentrate on it," she said seriously.

"Bella!"  I laughed and said, "I was just teasing.  I'd love to 
play your game, but I need to eat and besides, I would like to talk 
to you for a while."

She smiled and put the game away.

XXXXXXXXXX

Was I ever going to quit being embarrassed by Devlin Mulder?  We 
didn't have any bread when I got up this morning so I hadn't packed 
my lunch.  By the time I got to the cafeteria, the line was so 
long, I decided not to try to eat.  I grabbed an orange juice from 
the vending machines and moved towards a table in the corner.

I could hear the other kids laughing at me as I walked across the 
entire length of the room.  I swore that this wasn't an experience 
I would ever voluntarily undertake again.  Not for every sweet 
smile Devlin Mulder had.  I pulled my Grey's Anatomy out and opened 
it, propped against my backpack.  I slid a bud into each ear and 
plugged them into the Palm Pilot that I had souped up to play my 
favorite retro-game, XIII.  The action in the game was mediocre 
compared to the virtual reality games of today, but the characters 
and the plot were still first class after all these years.  The 
voice of the main character was so sexy, kind of like Devlin's, 
when I thought about it.

I shook myself and got back into my game.  If he was just playing 
with me and didn't show up, I wasn't going to be sitting here 
looking for him all lunch period.  He probably was just playing 
with me and had some of his friends watching to see if I fell for 
the joke.  Ha.  Ha.  Fucking HA!  The new geek on campus got set up 
by a jock.  Plus, it had to be a jock with a brain to make the joke 
work.  I sat there trying not to cry, forcing myself deeper into 
the game to keep from weeping.  When Devlin touched me on the arm 
and said my name, I almost screamed aloud. 

"Is this seat taken?" he asked with a smile.

"Devlin!  I didn't see you come in.  Sure, have a seat."  I 
scrambled to pull the ear-buds out of my ears and get the game put 
away before he realized what I was doing.

"What were you playing?" he asked as he leaned over to see the 
screen.

I quit breathing.  I could swear he sniffed me, closed his eyes and 
hummed.

"It's an old game called 'XIII'," I squeaked.  I began to babble 
about the game and practically tried to force him to play it.  

He said he needed to eat and he wanted to talk to ... me.  Me.
Wow.

He started pulling out this huge lunch.  Three sandwiches, cut up 
veggies, a single serving packet of ranch dressing, an apple, a 
bunch of grapes and cookies, homemade.  I stared at his lunch and I 
could feel my mouth begin to water.  I watched him open the first 
sandwich and the smell of the tuna salad made my stomach clench and 
grumble.  He noticed my reaction and his good manners took over.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Bella, would you like a tuna sandwich?  Sorry it's not roast beef 
or turkey, but my mother has this thing about us not eating heavy 
meals at lunch."  I suddenly felt embarrassed, but I couldn't 
pinpoint the reason why.

"This isn't a heavy meal?" she asked incredulously.

"Naw.  This is what I always eat when I'm going to have practice 
after school.  Hey, where's your lunch?"

I thought about lying and saying that I already ate, but I couldn't 
force the words through my lips for some reason.  "I forgot to pack 
my lunch this morning and when I got here the line at the counter 
was too long to face."  Well, a half-truth was better than a full 
lie.

"No problem.  Here," he said as he pushed a sandwich over to me.  
"I'm only doing a 5k run tonight.  I think I can share a little of 
the bounty."

"Does your Mom always pack such a big lunch for you?" I asked as I 
tore into the sandwich.  It was heavenly.  Tuna, eggs, black 
olives, sweet pickles, celery, onion and just the right amount of 
mayo.

Devlin laughed and shook his head.

"My Mom?  Pack my lunch?  Nah!  I pack my own lunch," he said.

"So you made this great tuna salad?  A man of many talents!" I 
teased.

"No, I pack it, but my Dad made the tuna.  He always has a ton of 
food ready for us to use for lunch.  He does most of the cooking 
and the grocery shopping."

"Oh, your Dad's out of work?" I asked.  Suddenly, I wished I hadn't 
taken his food.  

"Not really.  He works from home, so he can take care of the kids."

"Aren't you one of those 'kids'," I teased.

He grinned at me and offered me some grapes.  "Yeah, I used to be.  
I'm pretty low maintenance now.  I have a brother and sister, 
twins, Mairin and Mackenzie."

"If your Dad works from home, what does your Mom do?"

For the first time since I spoke to him, he seemed uneasy.  'Oh, 
yeah Izz, all four hours of your relationship and you know that 
he's 'uneasy'!' I chided myself.

"She's a, uh, teacher," he finally said.

"And she's not home as much as your dad?" I asked.

"She works down at Quantico so she has to commute.  Sometimes she 
gets calls to work at other locations."  He immediately changed the 
subject by asking, "What do your parents do?"

I dreaded this question, but once again decided to be honest with 
him.  "My mother is an Administrative Assistant to one of the Aides 
of Senator Musto.  We're from Pittsburgh."

"And your father?" he asked around a huge bite of his sandwich.

"My Dad's unemployed right now.  He was 'downsized' from his job."  
I took another bite to avoid talking about my father any more.  
"That's why they accepted the transfer when it was offered to my 
mom."

"Tough deal," he said sympathetically.  "It's pretty easy to find 
work right now.  What kind of job is he looking for?"

"Well, there's not a lot of steel manufacturing plants in Falls 
Church, Virginia," I snapped.

"Bella, I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to be nosey."

He looked at me with such sweet concern, that my eyes welled up 
with tears.  Devlin Mulder was really a nice guy.

"I'm sorry Devlin.  He's not having a very good time of it right 
now.  He took some computer classes and he's really good, but at 
his age, just starting out in the industry, employers won't even 
look at his resume."

He reached over and gave my hand a squeeze.  The shot of 
electricity that had been there this morning hit us both again.  He 
pulled away and blushed.  "Is he into programming, like you?" he 
nodded towards my Palm Pilot.  

He obviously didn't want to talk about what happened each time we 
touched, so I shook my head and said, "No, hardware.  He's a wizard 
at building and repairing systems.  He's always been good with his 
hands.  He even built our house in Pittsburgh," I said with a sigh.

"What?" he asked.

"The bank took the house back after Dad lost his job."  I shrugged.  
"It's not a good thing to remember."

"Sorry," he said quietly, then smiled.  "But you're here now."

"Yeah," I said as I smiled back.  "I'm here now."

XXXXXXXXXX

I couldn't believe how fast lunch period went.  After upsetting 
Bella over her dad and the past, I wolfed down my food as we talked 
about our class schedules.  I was thrilled to find that we had 
almost every class on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays together.

"Do you have to be home right after school?" I asked.  "I have 
track practice, but it's short.  If you can stick around, I can 
drive you home."

She looked at me for a long time and then nodded.  "All right.  
I'll wait for you in the library."

We talked some more and were surprised when the first bell for our 
next period rang.  She sighed and put her things away.  She pulled 
her backpack up on her shoulder and put her glasses back on.

"Do you really need glasses?" I asked.

"Only if I want to see anything farther than three feet in front of 
me," she joked.  "I can see up close.  I just have difficulty with 
depth perception and distances."  She frowned.  "Why?  Don't you 
like girls who wear glasses?"

"Bella," I said softly.  "I think it's a shame to hide your 
beautiful eyes behind glasses.  Can you wear contacts?"

She nodded, curtly.  "I could if we could afford them."  She pushed 
her way past me and walked toward the door of the cafeteria.

I stood there stunned.  I didn't mean to hurt her feelings.  Damn!  
I was going to have to be more careful until we got to know each 
other better.  "Bella!" I yelled.  She stopped and looked back at 
me.  Her beautiful expressive face was closed off again.  She 
lifted her chin and answered.  

"What?"

"Wait," I said as I scrambled to get my lunch trash together.  "I 
want to walk with you to class."

She sighed and I could tell that she was sorry she had gotten angry 
so quickly.  When I reached her, I said, "I'm sorry if I hurt your 
feelings.  I didn't mean to ask why you didn't buy contacts.  I 
just wanted to know if you could.  You know?"

She smiled her pixie smile at me again, "Yeah, I know.  Okay, 
Mulder.  You're off the hook this time.  We better get to class."

XXXXXXXXXX

The rest of the afternoon seemed to drag by.  It was Wednesday and 
I didn't have any classes scheduled with Bella.  I couldn't wait 
until tomorrow.  Almost all our classes were either together or in 
the same wing of the building.

Finally the afternoon ended and I walked Bella to the library 
before I went to track practice.  She assured me she would wait for 
me.

"Where am I going to go, Devlin?  The busses all left and I'm new 
in town.  I haven't a clue how to get home unless you take the 
expressway."  She grinned at me.

I didn't have a full workout today.  I was practicing for a 10k 
cross-country run next weekend and an intramural meet tomorrow, so 
I was only going to do a 5k on the track today.

My coach was surprised at my time.  I usually took it easy on the 
slow days, standing around and shooting the bull with some of my 
friends before I loped around the outside course.  Today I clocked 
the fastest 5k I had ever run and hit the showers in record time.

I thundered down the hall, scared to death that Bella had gotten 
tired of waiting and left with someone else.  Even as I thought it, 
I felt foolish.  Duh!  She was new.  Who would she know that could 
give her a ride?  Even as I laughed about my insecurities, new ones 
cropped up.  Who wouldn't want to get to know her?

I rushed into the library and Mrs. Grimes shot me a sour look.  I 
grinned at her and she melted, just like always.  It pays to be a 
top student who loves to read sometimes.  I looked around and she 
wasn't in the open reading area.  I started to panic, but suddenly 
remembered that she seemed to like to stick to the corners of 
rooms, quiet and inconspicuous.

I looked over at the computer stations in the corner and saw her 
huge backpack on the floor.  It was almost as big as she was.  I 
tried to calm my breathing down and walked towards her.  She heard 
me and peeked around the screen of the computer to smile at me as I 
approached her.  She wasn't wearing her glasses and I could see her 
beautiful brown eyes smiling at me.

Suddenly it struck me.  What was going on?  I never noticed these 
things about other girls.  I never felt like I got hit by lightning 
every time I touched any other girl's hand.  I remembered something 
my Dad told Mackenzie about girls.  Well, actually, it was about 
Mom.  He said that the first time he shook hands with Mom he felt a 
connection.  Was this feeling I had every time we touched the 
connection he was talking about?

I looked at Bella objectively for the first time.  She was short, 
almost as small as my mother.  Her hair was long, straight, but 
clean.  I couldn't tell anything about her body.  Her clothes and 
shoes were colorful and huge on her, totally shapeless.  In fact, 
they looked like they were her brothers or they were ... donated to 
her.  Oh brother!  Suddenly I realized why she had been touchy 
about the contacts.  Her mother was working, but with her dad 
unemployed, it must be tough on them.

Her hands were fine-boned and slender, but there were calluses 
there that said she did some type of manual labor.  I tried to 
guess what activity could create calluses like these.  I decided 
that was one more thing I wanted to talk to her about.

Objectively, she wasn't the kind of a girl who would turn heads 
when she entered the room.  She wasn't tall, blonde and the Lord 
only knew if she even had boobs or a cute butt.  She wore cast off 
clothes of mismatched colors and glasses that made her look like a 
nerd.  She was extremely smart, and if our conversation today at 
lunch was any indication, had a rapier wit and a sharp tongue to 
match.  She could wield sarcasm as well as my mom used her 
scalpels. 

Nope.  She wasn't going to be voted Prom Queen, that's for sure, 
but there was something about Bella Quinci that I couldn't resist.  
I was drawn to her in a way I couldn't explain.

I didn't care what she looked like.  I didn't care if she didn't 
dress in the latest style.  I wanted to know what it would feel 
like to kiss her.  If we shot sparks when we touched, would we 
cause a power outage when we kissed?  I must have had a goofy grin 
on my face when that last thought hit because she started frowning 
at me.

'Bella, Bella, Bella, what are you thinking?' I wondered.
 

XXXXXXXXXX
PART 5 (PG)
THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
FALLS CHURCH, VA
LIBRARY
JUNE 9 - 3:45 PM

I was nervous waiting in the library for Devlin.  The librarian, 
Mrs. Grimes, had been somewhat suspicious of me until I told her I 
was waiting for Devlin Mulder.  She melted like butter in sunlight.
She must be another of Devlin Mulder's conquests.  All the teachers 
liked him; most of the kids knew and liked him too!  A lot of 
people who had avoided me for days, were now suddenly willing to be 
friendly because Devlin had had lunch with me today.  Interesting.

Mrs. Grimes set me up with a sign-on and a password for one of the 
library computers so that I could do some research on college 
scholarships.  It looked like my mom was going to be working in the 
Senator's office for at least three more years.  After that long, I 
doubt that they would move back to Pittsburgh.  Hopefully, by that 
time my dad will be working steadily again, too.  I decided to 
start my search with colleges in Virginia, Maryland and the 
District of Columbia.  I was really getting into it when I heard 
someone barrel through the library doors.

I peeked around the computer screen and saw Devlin smiling at Mrs. 
Grimes.  The stern look on her face melted away when she saw that 
the noisemaker was Devlin Mulder.  What did this guy have that made 
all the women in this school crazy about him?  He seemed to have 
the adult women wrapped around his little finger and the male 
teachers were all his best buds.  Most of the guys in the school 
liked him, or at least respected him.  The girls all talked about 
him and thought he was a hottie, but he treated them all like they 
were his little sisters.  Unless he was going with someone from 
another school and no one had thought to tell me, I hadn't heard 
his name connected to anyone, male or female here at TJ High 
School.  Why was he going out of his way to be with me?

I watched him look around the main part of the library and he 
actually looked concerned that he couldn't find me.  He started to 
turn towards the computer area and I ducked back behind the screen, 
pretending to be totally engrossed in my on-line search.

I didn't hear him approach and had to peek around the screen again 
to see where he was.

He was standing there staring at me, a contemplative look on his 
face.  I suddenly felt very exposed and self-conscious.  If he were 
just now comparing me to some of the other girls he knew, I was 
going to come up short.  I groaned mentally.  That was not intended 
to be a pun.  He got this goofy grin on his face and it started to 
piss me off.  What the hell was he thinking?

"There you are.  Ready to go?" he asked as he strode over to me and 
flopped down in the chair next to me.

I shook my head and continued reading about grants and scholarships 
offered at Georgetown University.  There were a lot of colleges to 
choose from in this area.  I was surprised.  However, Georgetown 
had a lot of grant monies available through their Alumni 
association.

"Georgetown?  You're going to go to Georgetown?" Devlin asked.

"I might," I said and shrugged.  "It's close by and they have a lot 
of grants available right now."  The look on his face pushed me 
over the edge and I sneered, "I suppose you're going to Harvard or 
Yale?"

"Well, actually, my father wants me to go to his alma mater, St. 
Alben's, but my Mom is voting for the University of Maryland."

"St. Alben's?  Is that a catholic school?" I asked.  I had been 
looking up colleges for a long time and that was not a name I was 
familiar with.

"No."  He coughed and looked away.

"Devlin?"

"It's one of the Universities at Oxford."

"Oxford?  In England?"  I almost choked saying the name.

"Um, yeah."

"You said your dad was out of work?  How could someone who 
graduated from Oxford be out of work?"  

"I didn't say he was out of work.  I said he stays at home.  He has 
his office at home."  

"Oh, I thought you meant that he wasn't working."  No wonder he 
wanted his son to go to Oxford.  Suddenly I was suspicious of his 
answer.  "He has his office at home?  What does he do, sales?"

"No."  Devlin looked at me belligerently.  "He's a child 
psychologist now."

"What was he before?"  I was almost afraid to ask.

"He was a Special Agent for the FBI," he said uneasily.

"Wow!  Cool!  What happened, did he get shot or something?"

"Something," he said dismissively.  "What other schools are you 
looking into?"

I stared at him speculatively for a moment before I said, "I just 
started looking around here.  I had a full scholarship practically 
promised to me at my old school, but it's not possible now."

"Why?" he asked as he scooted his chair closer to mine to get a 
better look at the screen.

I turned my head to look at him and he was so close to me that I 
thought he was going to kiss me.  "Why?" he whispered and I could 
feel his breath, spicy and sweet, puff against my lips.

"I," I choked out, then swallowed hard and tried again.  "I don't 
live in Pittsburgh anymore.  It was for a resident of 
Pennsylvania."  I looked back at the screen quickly.  I knew I was 
blushing.

"If you could choose any school in the country, where would you 
go?"

I shrugged, unable to even say what I wanted out loud.

"Come on, Bella," he teased.  "Harvard?  Yale?" he said in a very 
proper Bostonian accent.

I smiled but kept clicking through the screens at the various 
colleges.

"Brown?  Vassar?  UCLA?  Texas A&M?" he asked.

"No," I said.  I clicked on the icon and nodded my head at the 
screen.  "There."

"M.I.T.?  Wow!  Bella.  You want to go to M.I.T.?"  There was a 
look of admiration in his eyes.

"Yes, but it will never happen," I said softly.

"Why?" he asked innocently.

I glared at him and I could practically see the light go on inside 
his head.  "Oh, your dad's unemployment," he said.  What a genteel 
way of saying we were too poor.  Devlin Mulder might have as well 
been from another planet.  He and I were as different as Pittsburgh 
and Falls Church were.  For some reason that made me very sad.

"Why would you want to torture yourself like that?" he teased.  "I 
mean, you're so smart, as soon as you get out of school you could 
get a job."

"Oh, yeah, as if it's that easy," I snorted.

"What?  You sound just like my parents.  All they do is harp at me 
about 'thinking' about college.  I don't want to go to college just 
to get a piece of paper that says I can pass tests in a controlled 
environment.  I want to go out and work in the real world and show 
them what I can do."

"Devlin, you are such a rich kid!"  I laughed as I shut down the 
computer.

"I think I'm insulted!" he laughingly said, but I could tell he was 
getting mad at me.

"What?  Do you think one of your parent's rich friends will just 
automatically take you into their company when you graduate?  
You'll stun them with your SAT scores and they'll jump at the 
chance to employ the great Devlin Mulder?"  I was giggling now.

"Hey, I know some people who would help, sure, but I can do it on 
my own.  I'm one of the best programmers around.  I've already sold 
a few programs."

"Mulder, you're fooling yourself."  I knew what I was talking about 
here.  My father had run into it time after time.  No degree meant 
no job or an offer of an 'internship' where you did grunt work for 
minimum wage.  "No piece of paper, no job offers.  No job offers, 
no job.  No job, no money.  No money, no fun.  Does that make it 
clear for you?"

"Thank you, Ms. Quinci, for the lesson in life," he huffed.

"Hey, Dev, I'm not trying to be a bitch about this.  I know what it 
can do to a man to be out of work.  My dad's heard it so many 
times.  He's able and qualified, but without that piece of paper, 
they have to hire someone else.  I figure it's worth the effort 
right now to get my degree.  Who knows, I might have a family 
depending on me to support them sooner than I expected."

His quizzical look prompted me to continue.  "If something happens 
to my parents, I'll be responsible for the younger kids.  My baby 
sister is only two years old.  A lot can happen in sixteen years.  
I love my family.  I'm willing to do anything I have to in order to 
keep my little brothers and sisters from being split up.  I saw 
that in too many families in Pittsburgh.  It will not happen to 
us!"  Tears of frustration splashed from my eyes.

"Hey, Bella, I understand.  If something happened to Mom and Dad, I 
would want to take care of M&M."

I gave him a watery smile and turned off the computer.  "Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXX
 
I drove Bella home and was surprised that she lived so far out 
towards D.C. until I remembered her mother worked there.  It made 
sense.  She had me let her out at the street, and I wasn't sure if 
I was angry or sad that she didn't want me to see her place.  She 
had blushed and given me her personal e-mail address, and I felt 
like she had kissed me.  I thought about her all the way home.

I decided to start checking into some of the colleges she had been 
looking at.  If Mom and Dad were going to insist that I go to 
college, it couldn't hurt to have at least one friend at school.

All day yesterday, I'd expected Mom to make a point of having a 
little 'chat' with me about Monday night.  That's what she's always 
called it when she felt the need to discuss my behavior.  I usually 
felt like I've been run over by a Mack Truck when she was done.  I 
knew I had been a shit to my Dad, throwing out the 'you're not my 
father' line.  Fox Mulder was my father.  Objectively, I knew that, 
but sometimes the need to know why I was given up for adoption, why 
I wasn't wanted, was so overpowering, I felt like I was going to 
explode.  That time I had, and unfortunately, the man who has been 
there for me my whole life was on the receiving end of the 
explosion.

I had already apologized, but I knew my mother wasn't going to be 
satisfied with my casual apology.  I was prepared to defend my 
stance yesterday morning, but now, I was ready to grovel.  I had 
been happy when I first heard that she had been detained overnight 
on a case, but my bubble soon burst when I realized that it just 
gave her an extra twenty-four hours to mull over my behavior.

I decided to forgo reading the journal tonight.  I was tired and 
had a track meet the next day.  Besides, I was going to need my 
strength by the time Mom got through with me.

Continued in Part 3 of 10

TITLE:          TRUCKIN' 2: KEEP ON TRUCKIN' Part 3 of 10

XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 9, 2010
7:00 PM

I hadn't gotten a chance to speak to Devlin yesterday about his 
hurtful remark to Mulder.  Knowing my husband as I do, he had 
already forgiven him and moved on.  I couldn't let it go.  Devlin 
needed to know how far out of line he had been with that 'not my 
father' remark.

I meant to talk to him right away yesterday morning, but the Bureau 
and a serial killer in Baltimore had gotten in the way.  I hadn't 
made it home last night.  I had performed back-to-back autopsies on 
three of the five victims found at the latest crime scene.  The SAC 
had rented a room at a nearby motel and I had stayed on for the 
briefing this morning.

I hated to be away from Mulder and the kids, but this time, it was 
worth it.  The information I had uncovered during my autopsies 
pointed directly to a previous suspect.  They had apprehended the 
suspect and by the time I started home, he was singing like a bird.
This was the kind of results that made my time away from home 
worthwhile.

I was back early enough to eat with the family.  We'd had a nice, 
leisurely dinner and then Mulder and I were finishing up the 
dishes.

"How did you and Devlin get along last night?"

Mulder shrugged and said, "Fine.  He did his share with dinner last 
night and then spent the rest of the evening, after homework, on 
the computer."

"Do you think it's healthy for him to spend so much time playing 
that game of Langly's?" I asked.

Mulder gave me a quizzical look and then shrugged again.  "If he 
weren't getting straight A's and on the track team, I'd be worried.
He does have other interests.  It's just his time at home that is 
taken up with the game."

"I know, Mulder, but Mackenzie and Mairin both have top grades, are 
on the soccer team and still get three or four times the calls the 
Devlin gets."

Mulder grinned.  "Most of his friends are on-line, playing the same 
game he is."

I smiled, "I hadn't thought of that."  I kissed my husband and went 
upstairs to check on the twins before I talked to Devlin.

I had mulled over my approach during the commute to and from 
Baltimore.  I had decided that Mulder was right.  Devlin did need 
to know about his biological parents and why he was in an 
orphanage.  As hard as it was for me to face some of our past, I 
felt it would be beneficial for Devlin to understand the commitment 
Mulder had made to him.

I was determined to discuss college applications with him tonight, 
too.  He had put off his SAT's until the last testing and seemed 
surprised when his scores came back almost perfect across the 
board.  Now he was just as resistant about looking at the schools 
that had sent him information.  That was going to change.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 9, 2010
9:00 PM

I had been gaming with the guys on-line when my e-mail icon 
flashed.  I had mail.  I quickly signed off the game and opened my 
e-mail.  It was Bella.  She was excited about some information 
Georgetown had sent through the snail mail.  Apparently her SAT 
scores were almost as good as mine and they were trolling for her 
already.  She sent me her IM name and we talked for about an hour.
I sent her some addy's for colleges that had interested me.  One 
was Chico State in sunny California, Party Central.  I could major 
in partying and get my piece of paper too.

She reminded me that California had the strictest legal level of 
alcohol allowable in the blood stream.  I was never going to be 
able drive once I hit the campus, and their stance on underage 
drinking was militant.

I sent a frown emoticon back and told her to check her e-mail 
again.  I'd sent some information for M.I.T. to her, hoping to 
encourage her and help her achieve her dream.  I didn't tell her 
that I'd already been contacted by M.I.T. as a potential candidate 
for a scholarship.

I also didn't tell her that I had wanted to discuss her dad with 
Langly, Byers and Frohike--The Uncles, as we called them.  To the 
rest of the world they were the Lone Gunmen, publishers of the 
Silver Bullet, a paranoia rag that was more accurate than anyone 
could have imagined when it first started.  The Uncles would be the 
right ones to help Bella's dad find a job.

Bella and I were perusing the information on Boston College when 
Mom came in to talk.  I told Bella I had to go, told her I would 
see her tomorrow.  She reminded me that she had a field trip the 
next day and probably wouldn't see me until Friday.  We signed off 
and I gave Mom my full attention.

XXXXXXXXXX

I was surprised that Devlin wasn't deep in the heart of Zendor or 
whatever the name of his gaming planet was, when I walked into the 
den.  He looked up at me and smiled a weak 'I-know-I'm-in-for-it' 
smile and held up one finger to indicate he would be right with me.

I walked over behind him and glanced at the screen.  The home page 
for Boston College was displayed there.  I was shocked.  He was 
looking up colleges on his own.  Would wonders never cease?


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 10, 2010
2:00 AM

I slid into the desk chair as quietly as I could.  I didn't want to 
wake my parents up tonight.  Especially after the 'chat' Mom and 
I'd had earlier.  It hadn't been as rough as I thought it would be, 
but I wasn't ready for a re-enactment yet.

They wanted me home on Friday night.  Mom said that Dad had 
arranged for Gramma to watch the twins so that we could 'talk'.  

I booted up the computer and worked my way through the files to 
their journal.  I quickly glanced at the most current entry date 
and was surprised that both Mom and Dad had made an entry last 
night.  I decided not to read it now.  I could always check it out 
later.  I had a feeling they were going to let me know just what 
was on their minds on Friday.

Crap.  I wanted to ask Bella to the game on Friday night.  I wasn't 
interested in participating in organized baseball, but I liked to 
watch my friends play.  Maybe it was for the best anyway.  She 
wasn't going to be at school tomorrow ... er ... today.  She was 
going to a Career-Day Expo at the Seven Corners Community College.  
She was serious about this college thing.  There were going to be 
several schools represented there and she was hoping to connect 
with someone who could help her get the best scholarships.  I 
didn't know what she was worried about.  She's brilliant.

I found the spot where I'd left off the other night and decided to 
skim through the earlier entries.  I thought that I wasn't really 
interested in the details of their sex life, or at least their 
almost-sex life, but I found that reading about them dancing around 
each other, trying to work out the details of their relationship 
was fascinating.  

All my life they had presented a united front.  They loved each 
other and were secure in their relationship.  The security of their 
love had always made it easy for me and the twins to forget how 
tough some kids had it sometimes.  No matter how rough life was, 
Mom and Dad were there supporting us with their unconditional love.  
Not that they let us get out of line.  But even when we were 
punished, we always knew that they did it because they loved us.

I skimmed the entries that told about the beginning of the 
assignment and was almost ready to skip ahead to the entries I had 
read previously.  I came to a screeching halt when I spied a 
reference to the tattoo that my Dad has on his shoulder.

Not many people would expect a guy like my dad to have a tattoo, 
let alone one as big and fantastic as the one he sported on his 
upper arm.  I read several lines and decided to go back to the 
beginning of the entry and read the whole thing.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 10, 2010
4:20 AM

Holy Shit!  I sat back, exhausted by the early hour and the words I 
had just read.  My Dad, Fox 'anything-you-want-honey' Mulder had 
gotten in a fight with my Mom over a prostitute, a lot-lizard he 
was trying to help and had gotten ripping drunk and got the tattoo 
of the two phoenixes on his arm.  Cooner!  My Uncle Cooner was 
right there with him.

Uncle Cooner owned one of the largest trucking companies on the 
East Coast.  He and Aunt Alice and Conner, their son, lived in 
Annandale.  If anything, they were even more sedate than Mom and 
Dad.

The biggest surprise of all, though, was Mom.  My mother had a CB 
handle of Lady Bird.  She had driven the truck with my father.  My 
mother has a freaking tattoo.  According to my father she got it in 
Philadelphia while she was out drinking with some guy named Ed 
Jersey or Jerk or Jerse.  Something like that.  What the hell?  

I sat there stunned for another few minutes.  I wanted to download 
the entire journal and take off for a few days to read it all at 
once.  What else would I find?  

If I didn't have a cross-country race today, I wouldn't think twice 
about skipping school.  I wasn't going to get to see Bella today, 
after all.  I sat there thinking of Bella for a few moments until I 
realized that I heard a noise upstairs.

Shit!  Shit!  Shit!  I didn't want to blow it now.  I had a lot of 
reading ahead of me.  I quickly closed down the program and deleted 
the history files and temporary files, emptied the cache and 
powered down the computer.

I waited until the noise came back and breathed a sigh of relief.  
It was Mairin going to the bathroom.  I snuck up stairs to grab a 
few hours of sleep.  I couldn't wait until Friday.


XXXXXXXXXX
PART 6 (PG-13)
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 10, 2010
7:45 PM

Dinner was over and my homework done.  I was bushed.  I had made it 
through the day, even finishing first in the 10k run, but I was 
thinking of turning in early tonight.  I was still reeling from the 
information I had read about my Mom and Dad last night.

With all this new knowledge about my parents, I was almost afraid 
of what they were going to tell me tomorrow night.
 
The only reason I was still up was that Bella had e-mailed me 
earlier, telling me she was going to call around 8:00 PM.  I wanted 
to tell her everything, about Mom and Dad, about the track meet, 
about how much I missed her.  I was thinking about how hard it had 
been not to talk to her today when I realized that I had only known 
her for two days.  I just met her on Wednesday.  It was Thursday 
now.  Damn!

How could I feel this way after only two days?  Damn!  Suddenly, I 
was scared.  What did I really know about Isabella Quinci?  I mean, 
could I even pick her out in a crowd?  I grinned as I realized that 
I probably couldn't, unless I touched her.  Then I wouldn't have a 
problem.

The phone rang and I lunged to get it.  Of course, Mairin was there 
first.  I laughed as her eyes got big and round and she turned to 
look at me.

"It's for you, Devlin.  It's a girl!" she announced, sounding 
astonished.

Mackenzie's head shot up and he looked from Mairin to me and back.  
"A girl?  Are you sure it's not for me?" he teased.

"Bite me, little bro," I said as I reached for the phone.  "Hello?"

"Devlin, hi, it's me."  Bella's voice was soft and husky.  It 
sounded like she had been sleeping.

"Hey.  How was the field trip?"  I glared at my siblings, 
threatening bodily harm to both of them if they didn't leave the 
room.  Mackenzie shrugged and packed up his backpack.  He stretched 
and went into the living room to tell Mom and Dad goodnight, but 
Mairin snuggled down like she was settled for the night and smiled 
at me.

Bella was talking about the amazing women she had heard speak today 
and I realized why I hadn't signed up to go.  This was an event for 
the female students of the school only.  Supposedly there were 
going to be about a dozen women speaking from all kinds of careers 
and fields of interest.

I sat there listening to her voice, her enthusiasm, and supplied a 
grunt every so often to let her know I was listening.  Mairin 
finally got tired of hanging around and packed up her backpack and 
left the room, stopping at the doorway of the den to stick her 
tongue out at me.  I grinned at her and she blew me a kiss 
goodnight.  She was a pain, but I loved the little squirt.

We talked for about an hour.  I couldn't remember anything we said, 
but I knew I didn't want to hang up.  I started yawning.  My cross-
country run and the lack of sleep from last night were catching up 
to me, big time.

"Am I boring you, Devlin?" she teased.

"No," I said.  "I'm tired but I don't want to hang up."

"I should go.  I need to get some work done on my biology notebook 
before class tomorrow."  She hesitated before saying, "Are you 
going to the baseball game tomorrow night?"

"I wanted to go.  I wanted to ask you to go with me, but my parents 
have asked me to stay home tomorrow night for a big family 
meeting."

"Oh."

"Bella, I really wanted to go to the game with you, you know that 
don't you?"

"Yeah, thanks, Devlin.  I'm, ummm, not sure I could go anyway.  
Friday's are kind of crazy around here and this Friday will be 
especially crazy because my Nana is coming to visit from Italy."

"Really?  That's cool.  Does she come to visit often?"

"Yes, but she's never been here in Virginia before.  My Grandpa 
died last summer and she's lonely.  Grandpa hated to travel and 
never really forgave my mother for leaving Italy, but Gramma always 
wanted to keep in touch with all of us."

"Well, you probably aren't interested in going to a movie Saturday 
night, then, huh?"  I was disappointed.  I wanted to get to know 
Isabella Quinci better and I knew we'd never have enough time 
during the school week.

"I'd love to go to a movie, but I probably couldn't go until late.  
I promised that I would watch the kids for Mom and Dad so that they 
could take Nana to see the Lincoln Memorial.  Nana's always wanted 
to see it for some reason."

"Okay, I'll call you around 5:00 PM tomorrow to see what time you 
can get away.  It's a date!"  I couldn't believe that I had 
actually asked her and she accepted.

"A date?" she squeaked.
 
"Yeah!  We'll go to the movies and get something to eat.  I promise 
to have you home by midnight."  I didn't want to tell her that my 
parents didn't let me stay out much later than that.  How 
humiliating for a guy who was seventeen?  Come to think of it, 
maybe that was one thing we could negotiate tomorrow night after 
our 'chat'.

We talked for a few minutes longer, but my yawns were so frequent 
and loud that she insisted that we hang up.  We said good night and 
as soon as I hung up the phone, my Mom strolled into the room.  

Before she could ask me anything, I took the offensive.  "I'm tired 
tonight.  Think I'll turn in."  I kissed her and she gave me one of 
her knowing smiles before telling me goodnight.

"Devlin, you didn't make any plans for tomorrow night did you?" she 
asked.

"Naw, you asked me to keep it free.  I might go out to the movies 
on Saturday night with a friend.  Is it okay if I use the car?"

"You don't know for sure?" she asked with a wry smile.

"I asked but she had to ask her parents.  I'll let you know 
Saturday afternoon, okay?"

She hugged me and kissed me goodnight, an unexpected sheen of tears 
in her eyes.  I'm getting too old for public affection, but I don't 
ever want her to stop letting me know that she loves me.  The only 
time I was ever been completely free of worry when I was a kid was 
when she held me.  Dad too, but for some reason, my Mom could 
always make the bad stuff go away.


XXXXXXXXXX 
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 11 - 3:45 PM

Friday flew by.  Bella and I walked together from class to class.  
I introduced her to a lot of my friends and she seemed to like most 
of them.  I got a few strange looks from my buddies until they 
actually started talking to her.  She had a great sense of humor 
and was smarter than most of them, but she was also a good 
listener.  We were surprised that her locker was close to mine.  It 
seemed like we were being thrown together by fate.

What really killed me was how intelligent she was.  I have always 
been the smartest student in all my classes, even the advanced 
placement ones, but Bella gave me a run for my money.

For the first time I felt challenged by one of my fellow students--
hell, by anyone at school.  The only people I ever thought were 
smarter than me were my mother and father, Langly, and sometimes 
Byers and Frohike.  Okay, and maybe my Godfather, Walter Skinner.  
But Bella?  She was something!  She wasn't just intelligent, she 
knew so much about stuff.

I mean, she told me she had been taking care of her younger 
brothers and sisters for years while her parents worked.  She knew 
how to cook and she had always done the grocery shopping for the 
family.  She had helped her Dad build their home and knew all there 
was to know about wiring a house.  Now I knew what her calluses 
were from.  Life.  She loved to do everything.  She was so aware of 
everything.

I started to feel like the protected little rich boy she was 
teasing me about being.  Mom and Dad were not handy around the 
house.  If something broke, they called Mr. Lee, the handyman in 
our neighborhood.  He was a retired Navy officer who occasionally 
dated my Gramma Scully, and he always threatened to charge more for 
his services if one of us kids wanted to help.

I was thinking about her all the way home.  I was surprised to see 
my Gramma Scully's car in the driveway until I remembered that
M&M were going to spend the night with her.

I suddenly got a bad feeling about tonight.  What if I wasn't ready 
to hear what they had to say?  I shook off the feeling of 
apprehension and plastered a smile on my face for my Gramma.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 11 - 5:30 PM

Mom and Dad had ordered pizza after the twins left with Gramma.  We 
ate in relative silence.  The lack of conversation was starting to 
get on my nerves.  It was like waiting for a bomb to drop.  I threw 
the last half of my fourth slice of pizza down on the plate and 
sighed. 

"What's wrong, Devlin?" my mother asked.

I looked at her.  "I can't stand it.  I've been waiting since the 
day before yesterday for this 'talk', and now we've been sitting 
here for a half an hour pretending we aren't in the same room 
together.  Whatever this is, can we get it over with, please?"

She nodded.  "Are you finished, Mulder?"

"Yeah, Scully, let's do it," he said and gently squeezed her hand.

That damned united front again.  For all its advantages, it could 
sometimes make me feel overwhelmed and certainly outnumbered.  We 
threw away our paper plates and Dad wrapped up the two slices that 
were left and put them in the refrigerator.

I got up and silently followed them into the living room.  They sat 
on the couch and I sat in the recliner opposite them.  I watched my 
mother wring her hands in an uncharacteristic display of 
nervousness.

My father reached over and put his hands over hers.  She looked at 
him and he said, "We agreed on tonight, Scully."

I looked from one to the other as they stared at each other, 
seeming to communicate silently.  It was one of the things that 
freaked me out about them periodically.  Finally she nodded firmly 
and said, "I'm not sure where to begin, Devlin.  We decided we 
needed to share some things with you about the past."

I sat up straight in the chair and leaned forward, feeling my 
heartbeat accelerate.  Were they going to tell me about my real 
parents?  My mother swallowed harshly and said, "It's complicated.  
I'll try to keep it as simple as I can."

I stared at her, waiting.  When she didn't begin right away, I 
said, "Is this about me, or about you?"

She gave me a sad smile.  "It's about all of us."

I nodded.  "Okay."

She sighed and said, "A long time ago, when your father and I were 
field agents with the FBI, I was abducted by a former agent.  I 
don't remember much of my captivity, but I was missing for months.  
When I turned up at Georgetown Hospital, I was near death."

"Mom!" I said in a surprised, breathy voice.

She held up her hand.  "One of the worst parts about it was that 
whatever these men did to me, and I have no memory of it, they left 
me barren."

"Barren?" I repeated, my confusion evident.  "Then how did you have 
the twins?"  That would explain why they wanted to adopt, I 
thought.

My father looked at me and said, "Give her a chance, Devlin.  Let 
her tell the story."

I nodded again and muttered, "Sorry."

"It's all right," Mom said, smiling at me.  "Without going into all 
the details, these men were conducting unsanctioned medical testing 
and had abducted quite a few women over a long period of time.  
Through a process that used radiation to stimulate the female body 
to hyper-ovulate, they were able to harvest the majority of the ova 
in my body.  What was left was destroyed by the process itself.  
They stored my ova along with the ova of hundreds of other women 
for later use." 

I gasped, amazed and intrigued by this story and wondering if it 
was going where I thought it was going.

"Through illegal experimentation on others, they were able to 
perfect a technique of splicing and combining alien DNA with human 
DNA."

"Oh my God," I whispered.  

"After a while, they were successful in creating a test tube baby 
they could use to produce a clone whose DNA and genes were a 
combination of human and alien.  These babies were used to clone, 
not other children, but men.  The clones were somehow enhanced so 
that they grew at a rapid rate and became full grown men in the 
space of a year or so.  They were all super-intelligent."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because they chose genetic material from highly intelligent people 
to combine," she stated. 

I felt the color drain from my face.  "Why are you telling me 
this?"

She blinked and a few stray tears welled up and fell off her 
lashes.  "Some of these stolen ova and the sperm of the lead 
scientist who developed this process were combined and using 
invitro fertilization, a child was gestated in the womb of another 
woman.  The clones were developed from the stem cells in the 
placenta and cord of the live birth of that baby."  She hesitated.  
"I never met your father, Devlin ..."

"But you know who he was and who my mother was, or is?" I urged.

She nodded jerkily, swallowing harshly and audibly as my dad slid 
his arm around her again.

I clenched my jaw and felt the muscle jump.  "Who?"  I was sure I 
already knew part of the answer.

"I am your biological mother, Devlin.  They used my ova to create 
... you."

"And my father?" I whispered.

"His name was Kurt Crawford.  He was a brilliant biochemist and 
geneticist," she said with a sob.  "You were named after him."

"So is my father still--?" I halted, unable to finish my question.

"Alive?" my dad spoke up.  "No.  One of the things we do know is 
that he died during another experiment.  We have no further 
information on him, but we trust the source who gave us this 
information."

I felt the energy drain from my body and I fell back against the 
chair, feeling hot tears fall down my face.  "What happened?  I 
mean, this means that you didn't give me up?  It wasn't because I 
was unwanted."

"No!" she whispered.  "I didn't know you existed, Devlin, until you 
were seven years old."

"How did you find out?" I asked before the next thought hit me.  
"Wait, I didn't grow up in a year."

She held my gaze as my mind finally processed what she'd said.  "Oh 
my God!"

"You were the source of the human DNA for the gene splicing and 
cloning."

I felt my face scrunch up in disbelief.  "I was a fucking lab rat?" 
I shouted.

My mother was crying freely now.  "I don't know," she admitted.  "I 
honestly don't know anything about the process."

My doubt must have shown on my face because my father spoke up 
again.  "Devlin, neither one of us knew anything about you until 
you were seven years old.  It almost killed your mother, finding 
out then.  She had lost so much already."

My eyes moved back to my mother and I asked, "How did you find out 
about me?"

"The clones who were made from your genetic material knew that I 
was their mother, that they were created from you.  They hated 
their creators, those evil men who thought they could control the 
world."

I scoffed and shook my head.  I couldn't believe what I was 
hearing.  It was so fantastic.  I glanced at my father and saw the 
somber look on his face.  As fantastic as it was, they were telling 
me the truth, or the truth as they knew it anyway.

"What did they do?"

"They stole my remaining ova so that no more of them could be made, 
and they hid it away from their creators.  They were treated like 
slaves, forced to work in labs to create vaccines against the alien 
virus."

My jaw dropped.  "This has to do with the alien invasion, the one 
that the FBI thwarted years ago?"

They both stared at me and then my father said, "Yes."

"This is ... incredible."

"I know it's a lot to take in, Devlin," my father said.

"That's an understatement," I said quietly.  We were silent a few 
more moments and then I said, "What happened?  Tell me from the 
beginning.  How did you find me?"

My mother stood up and took a step toward me.  I knew she wanted to 
hug me but I held up my hand and stopped her.  "Don't touch me 
right now," I said.

She started crying harder and stepped back, sitting back down on 
the couch and staring at the carpet.  She was clearly distraught, 
but I needed to hear this story and I simply couldn't bear to have 
anyone touch me right now.  I needed time to process this.  Holy 
shit, my mother was my real mother all along.  How could I have not 
known?

My father took up the tale.  "Your mother and I were assigned to 
work undercover as a married truck driving team.  We were after 
hijackers who were stealing Global-Tech rigs and their loads.  The 
loads turned out to be government issued computers and software 
that were being delivered to these high-tech labs out in the middle 
of nowhere."

I flushed when I realized the case I'd been reading about in their 
journal was the one he was talking about.  He continued.  "To make 
a long story short, we found them, and when they realized they'd 
been discovered, the building was triggered to self-destruct.  We 
barely escaped.  The place was full of Kurt Crawfords, the clones; 
we escaped with them in the back of an eighteen-wheeler and helped 
them flee to different parts of the U.S. and Canada where they had 
secretly made arrangements in the event of their rescue or escape."

I found myself riveted and wondering that my parents had ever been 
these clever field agents who foiled plots like this.  I couldn't 
picture it and then again, I could.  They were so sincere in the 
telling, I couldn't help but believe them.  It almost sounded like 
a bad science fiction movie though.

He went on.  "When the case was over, your mother and I decided to 
get married, and we asked one of the Kurts to be a witness for us.
That's what they were all called, Kurt Crawford #1, #2, etc."

"Is this the good part?"

"For us it was," he replied with a gentle smile for us both. 

My mother took up the story.  "The Kurt who stood up as a witness 
for us gave us a wedding present from all of them before fleeing 
himself."

"What was it?"

"A perfectly preserved vial of my ova."  She paused.  "With it was 
a letter to Mulder telling him of your existence and where you 
were.  They were the ones who had somehow rescued you and had you 
placed in the orphanage.  We don't really know how they did it."

"He gave the letter to you?" I asked, looking at the man I'd known 
as my father my whole life.

"Yes.  I think they wanted to see how I would react.  They wanted 
to protect you.  They didn't know if I could handle being the 
father to a child who wasn't mine, biologically anyway.  They 
wanted to see if I would tell your mother about you or hide it from 
her."

"They were testing you?"

"Yes, I think they were.  Apparently, I passed the test, because 
you were still there when we got to the orphanage.  We were 
panicked that they would take you out of there before we could get 
to you."

My mother looked at me then.  "As soon as I knew you existed, 
Devlin, I wanted nothing else but to find you.  I loved you before 
I even saw you," she said as tears slid down her cheeks again.

I couldn't stand her anguish anymore and I stood up and walked over 
to her.  She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face.  She 
held her arms out to me just like when I first came to her as a 
small child; I fell on my knees before her and buried my face in 
her stomach.  My arms wrapped around her and I hugged her tightly 
as I hid my tears in her embrace.  I could feel her pain over the 
entire subject, but right beside it there was joy and love.  
Finally, I loosened my grip and I moved up on the couch to sit next 
to her.  She held my hands in hers and rubbed her thumbs over the 
back of my hands.  "I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, Devlin, 
but frankly, we didn't know how to at first.  You were too young to 
understand the science, and everything that had happened.  And then 
time went on, and we decided we would wait until you were old 
enough to understand it all.  We had planned on telling you this on 
your eighteenth birthday, but you obviously needed to know it now."

I looked over her shoulder at my father, and I did consider him my 
father, despite my outburst earlier in the week.  I realized just 
how big a man he was to take me in without question.  I was not his 
son, biologically.  I was made from my mother and some unknown 
scientist.  He had no idea who I would be, but I was another man's 
son, in any event.  "Why?" I asked.  

I didn't need to elaborate.  He knew what I was asking.  He licked 
his lips and said, "You and your mother were just innocent victims 
of some men with evil agendas and I ... I'd like to think that I am 
a good enough person that it wouldn't have made a difference for 
any reason.  How could I hold that against you or your mother?"

He was silent a moment, but I watched his face and knew there was 
more.  His gaze met mine and he said, "I don't think you can 
understand this yet, Devlin, but I hope someday you will.  I loved 
your mother so much that I would do anything to make her happy.  
Anything.  I knew how much her inability to have children had 
scarred her.  I didn't think I could ever do anything to mend that 
rift for her, but I loved her so much, and I wanted a family with 
her.  We didn't know then if her ova were viable.  We didn't know 
if she would ever be able to carry a baby to full term."

He paused again and seemed to sink into the past, his eyes staring 
out into the room, focused on nothing in particular.  "At the time, 
you were our one chance to have a family together.  She may not 
have carried you, but you are her flesh and blood, regardless.  
There was never any question for me.  As soon as we saw you, we 
both knew you were meant to be ours."

He shook himself slightly and looked me in the eye again.  "I never 
thought of you as 'Scully's son'.  You were 'OUR son'.  You've 
always been our son.  I never felt any different; I never wanted it 
any other way."

I felt my eyes sting with a fresh batch of tears.  I tried to hold 
them back but I couldn't.  They fell and I ignored them.  "Thank 
you," I whispered.  

He merely nodded and I turned back to my mother who was still 
clutching my hands.  I smiled and she gave me one of those 
endearing closed-lipped smiles that made me feel so cherished from 
the time I'd first been with them.  "Thank you for telling me," I 
said quietly.  "I should be angry that you kept it from me this 
long."

My mother glanced at my father and he raised his eyebrows.  My 
mother said, "Your father wanted to tell you a long time ago.  
However, he'd also agreed that it would be my decision when to tell 
you.  I'm the one who couldn't bring myself to do it."  She paused.
"I was so afraid you would hate me for keeping it from you," she 
whispered.

I pulled her to me and she rested her head on my chest.  "I could 
never hate you.  You're my mom," I said softly, feeling warmth 
spread through my chest as she began to sob again and clutched at 
my sweater.  I kissed the crown of her head and looked at my 
father.  He was watching silently, a shy half-smile on his face.

He returned my look and I cleared my throat.  "I owe you an 
apology."

He shrugged.  "You already apologized."

I shook my head.  "No.  I don't know why I even said it.  I've 
never felt like you weren't my father.  I just knew--" I said, 
hesitating.

"That I wasn't your biological father," he finished for me.  I 
wondered why he wasn't angry.

I nodded.  "You've been my father in every way that counts," I said 
finally.  "I'm sorry, Dad."

He cleared his throat.  "Apology accepted."

"So you two were somehow involved in ... the alien invasion?  We 
learned about it in school, but they all just say 'the FBI'.  They 
never name the agents involved."

My father said, "That's a story for another time, Dev.  I think 
we've revealed enough for one night."

I nodded and we sat in silence for a long time.  Finally my mother 
disengaged from me and sat back.  She smiled all of a sudden and 
said, "Guess what, Mulder?"

"What?" he asked.

"Devlin has a date tomorrow night."

I laughed, watching my father's eyebrows go up to his hairline.  
"You don't say?"

"Yes, and he's asked to borrow your car," Mom teased.

"My car?" Dad yelped.  "What's wrong with your mother's car?"

"Nothing," I said to play along.  "I just want to make a good 
impression on this girl."

"Oh, and you think you need a fancy car to do it?" he asked.

"Not really, but a little later curfew would go a long way toward 
improving my image," I hinted.

"What is she, some older woman you need to impress?" he asked, 
trying subtly to pump me for information.

"Naw, just a new girl I met," I replied, suddenly shy.

My mother wrapped her arm around Dad's waist and smiled up at me as 
she said, "I think custody of the car can be arranged.  I happen to 
know that your father will be home all night tomorrow, and busy.  
Very, very busy."  She moved her hand and I just knew that she was 
squeezing his butt.

It was incredible!  My dad melted right before my eyes.  I'd been 
reading about how much they loved each other and found each other 
sexually attractive.  Hell, I'd lived with it for most of my life, 
but I finally witnessed my mother wrapping my father around her 
little finger with nothing more than a pat on the butt and a little 
sexual innuendo that she could have said in church.

"Thanks, Mom," I smirked.

"Hey, why are you thanking her?  It's my car," Dad sputtered.  
"Don't forget be home on time and I don't want to see a scratch on 
it, so you be sure to park away from the building and ..." he 
rambled on as I tuned out the rest.  I'd heard it all before.

Mom looked at him and shook her head.  Dad shrugged and gave her a 
little grin.  They were doing it again, having an entire 
conversation without a word.

"I get the drift," I said.  "I'm gonna go upstairs now."  Ignoring 
me, they continued to stare at each other; their looks had become 
increasingly intense.

"Earth to 'rents!" I said finally.  "Minor in the room!"

Then we all laughed.
 

XXXXXXXXXX
PART 7 (NC-17)
QUINCI RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 12 - 5:20 AM

"Bella?  What are you doing up?"  My Nana was already at the table 
when I got up to get breakfast started for the family.  It always 
took her a little time to make the adjustment from the Italian time 
zone to the U.S. time zone we lived in.

"Morning, Nana," I replied, kissing her on the cheek.  "I always 
get up at this time to get breakfast going."

"That always your job?" she asked.

I nodded and said, "Yes."  I busied myself, extracting a frying pan 
and pulling eggs and bacon out of the refrigerator for a typical 
weekend breakfast.

"What are your plans for the day?" she asked, standing up and 
starting to make a pot of coffee.  

I swallowed, suddenly feeling foolish about my plans.  "I was going 
to see if I could go shopping."

"Shopping?  What for?"

"I have a date," I said softly.

Her wrinkled face blossomed into a grin and she said, "Do you?  Who 
is this young man of yours?" 

I blushed.  "A boy at school asked me out to dinner and a movie."

"Ah ha!  And what would this young man's name be?"

"Devlin Mulder."

"Interesting name, Devlin," she said.

"Gaelic, I think."

"What were you going to buy?"

"Not much, Nana.  Mom can't spare any money right now, but I have 
some saved for school and I thought I would use a little to buy a 
new blouse or something."

"You should buy a dress and new shoes," Nana said.  "And get your 
hair cut too, in one of those wingie-swingie styles like the girls 
in the airport had."

I frowned.  "I can't afford to do all that, Nana."

"Of course you can, I'm-a going to give you the money," she said.

"Nana!  No!  I don't want you to do that."

"I want to.  Il buon Signore knows I don't get the chance to do 
anything for this family anymore.  And if my little Bella is going 
on a date then I want her look nice.  Judging by the blush, you 
like this ... giovane ... young man."

"Yeah," I breathed out.  "I like him a lot, Nana.  But we're just 
friends right now.  He's really popular, so I don't think it will 
get serious.  We're just friends."

"Tsk, tsk," she clucked her tongue.  "None of that.  He asked you 
out, didn't he?  Not some other girl."

"Well, yeah, but," I said and shrugged.  She would never 
understand.

"Then we must conclude that he likes you too."

I fell silent, afraid to hope that she might be right.  "I don't 
want to set myself up for disappointment, Nana."

"You're a beautiful girl, my Bella, and sharp as a tack."

I sighed.  "You don't get it, Nana.  I'm not beautiful.  I'm not 
tall and blonde.  I'm not a cheerleader.  Those are the kinds of 
girls the boys here like."

"Nonsense!  You're like an Italian Rose.  Your beauty is just a bud 
right now.  You may bloom a little later, but you will be beautiful 
for your entire life, inside and out."

"Just like you, huh, Nana?"  I smiled.  "I'm glad you think so."

"I'm-a going to give you some money."

I felt traitorous tears sting my eyelids and I blinked rapidly.  I 
found myself admitting, "I want to look pretty for him, Nana."

"Of course you do, my Bella," she said softly, patting my hair.  
She pulled me into a hug and I hugged her tightly in return.  
Finally, I pulled away, sniffling and wiped my eyes on my sleeve.  
"I have to get going on breakfast here or the kids will be up and 
hungry as a pack of wild animals."

She patted my hand and leaned over to whisper in my ear.  "It will 
be our secret.  I don't think your parents need to know, do you?" 
she asked slyly.

I felt laughter bubble up inside me and she winked at me again and 
hobbled out of the kitchen on her cane.


XXXXXXXXXX
TYSON'S CORNER SHOPPING MALL
SEARS STORE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 12 - 12:45 PM

I stood by the rack of dresses and felt my frustration well up 
inside me.  None of these were my size, and I didn't even know what 
to buy, or how to find anything.  I'd never been shopping here in 
Virginia.  I knew exactly where I'd go in Pittsburg, but this was 
like a strange county.  I'd been so happy when I'd rushed out of 
the house after breakfast with Nana's gift of two-hundred dollars 
in my hands.  It was like a miracle.  But three stores later and I 
still couldn't find anything that fitted me or that I could afford.

I decided to try Sears; at least we had one of these at home.  Now 
I was here and thinking it had all been a mistake.  I swallowed a 
sob as I felt my shoulders roll and took a deep breath.  Just then 
I heard a soft alto next to me.  "Are you all right?"

My head snapped up and I was looking at one of the ladies from the 
Career Day.  She'd been one of the best speakers there.  She'd 
given a talk about women in law enforcement.  I'd been fascinated 
by all the options there were.  I sniffed.  "Yeah, I'm all right."

She raised one auburn eyebrow and said, "Were you at Career Day 
earlier this week?"

"Yeah, I loved the talk you gave."

"Thank you.  I thought I recognized you.  My name is Dr. Scully, by 
the way and you are?"  She extended her hand as if she were 
genuinely glad to meet me.

"Most people call me Izzy."  Not many adults treat kids my age with 
respect.  For some reason, I wanted her to call me by the beautiful 
name my Nana and Devlin used, but I was too shy.

"Izzy, what seems to be the problem?"

"Nothing.  I was just hoping to buy an outfit or a dress, but ... 
they don't have anything that looks like it would fit me."

"You're in the Misses section."

"Yeah, so?" I said.

She smiled.  "You're petite, like me.  You should probably try the 
Junior Petite section.  They are more likely to have something in 
your size.  I'll show you where it is."

I nodded.  "Oh, okay.  Thanks."

"Special event?" she asked we walked around racks of clothes into 
the aisle.  I followed her sure step.  She obviously knew right 
where she was going.

I shrugged again.  "I have a date tonight.  I'm new in town and I 
don't have anything nice to wear.  I've actually, um, never been 
out on a date before."

The woman smiled at me and said, "Nice guy, huh?"

I blushed.  "He's fantastic.  He's so smart and nice and really 
popular too, that I keep wondering why he's asked me out.  I feel 
like a little mouse geek to tell the truth."

She laughed.  "I know the feeling."

"I doubt it," I mumbled. 

She looked at me sharply, arching an eyebrow again.  "I didn't 
always look like this," she said.

"Really?" I asked with skeptical tone.

"Really!  I was a brain with long, stringy red hair, braces, and 
freckles who went to an all-girl's Catholic High School."

I found myself warming up to her in spite of my embarrassment.  
"I'm clueless," I admitted.  "I'm just realizing just how clueless 
I am.  I've always let my mother pick out my clothes.  As long as 
they were clean and fit reasonably well, I didn't care."

"And now, you want to dress to impress, huh?" she said teasing me.
"Well, Izzy, maybe I can help.  How much money can you spend?"

"My Nana gave me two-hundred dollars, but I need shoes and I have 
to save some to get my hair cut."

She eyed me up and down.  "Okay, let's see what we can find."

We ended up spending an hour together.  She helped me pick out a 
nice simple lavender dress with a V neck that showed a little 
cleavage, but not much.  It hugged my torso down to the waist and 
then flared out into a skirt.  She showed me how to read the sizes 
on the pantyhose and told me how to match the color of my shoes and 
hose to the color of my outfit.  She helped me pick out a pair of 
low heeled white pumps even though I wanted the lavender ones.  She 
reminded me that the white would go with a lot of clothes, not just 
my dress.  The best part was that everything was on sale so I saved 
enough money to buy a neat little white leather purse too!

I found myself liking her more and more.  She asked me questions 
about my date and I ended up telling her how great he was, how he'd 
rescued me from the bitches in the gym and then had given me a ride 
home.  I told her how smart, and handsome and charming he was.  I 
told her how I couldn't believe he was interested in me.

She laughed and gave me a few tips about walking in the heels, 
which I was not used to, even though they only raised me up an 
inch.  I was only five foot, three inches tall.  The shoes gave me 
an inch but he would still tower over me.  I didn't want to risk 
wearing anything higher though.  I'd probably break an ankle and 
that would certainly put a damper on the evening.

She asked if I had a car and I told her I'd ridden the bus.  She 
offered to give me a ride to get my hair cut.  I explained that I 
didn't know where I was going yet.  She said she knew a good place; 
she had her hair done there and they usually had open appointments.  
It was odd how I trusted her instinctively.  Maybe it was because 
she was a professional.  Maybe it was because I recognized her from 
the college fair.  Or maybe it was just because she was nice to me, 
and I wasn't used to that either.  I didn't have any girlfriends 
here and I found myself enjoying her company.

She never asked the boy's name and I never mentioned it.  I never 
asked her exactly what she did for a living and she never 
volunteered it.  Nonetheless, twenty minutes later we were at the 
beauty parlor.

The hairdresser left my hair long but cut it in layers so it fell 
down my back in tiers, and then she showed me how to blow dry it so 
it would flip back away from my face.  I still had to wear my 
glasses, but some things couldn't be helped.  Overall, I was 
pleased with it.  And I still had over fifty dollars in my pocket.  
She offered to give me a ride home, but I declined, telling her 
she'd been too generous already.  I wanted to stop at the drug 
store near my house on the way home.  Our neighbor, Mrs. Burk was 
working at the cosmetics counter today and I wanted to ask for her 
help buying some lip gloss.

She wished me luck and we parted ways.  I wished I could be like 
her someday.


XXXXXXXXXX
MULDER RESIDENCE
FALLS CHURCH, VA
JUNE 12 - 7:00 PM

I watched Devlin come down the stairs.  He looked so handsome.  He 
was wearing tan chinos.  He'd chosen a brown turtleneck with a blue 
sweater over it that made his eyes stand out.  I could tell he'd 
taken care to comb his unruly red curls into some semblance of 
order.  I looked down and saw he was wearing the loafers I'd bought
him for his birthday.

"Hi, Mom," he greeted me.

"Don't you look handsome!" I exclaimed.

He smiled broadly and twirled around.  I wolf whistled and he 
blushed.  "Do I really look all right?" he asked with 
uncharacteristic nervousness.

"You look fabulous," I said truthfully.  "So who's the lucky girl?"

"Isabella Quinci," he said softly.  

I could tell he was really into this girl.  "Tell me about her."

"She's fantastic, Mom.  She's really smart.  I enjoy talking to her 
a lot.  Most of the girls bore me with their giggling, but Bella is 
different."

"How so?"

"She's more down to earth.  She likes computers."

"Ah ha!" I said.  "So that's her charm, right there!" I teased.

He chuckled.  "It's more than that."

"Is she pretty?" I asked.

He sighed.  "I think so.  She's not classic pretty, you know, 
pretty-pretty."

"What's pretty-pretty?" I asked, unable to keep the amusement out 
of my voice.

"Oh, you know.  Most of the guys go for the tall, willowy blondes 
with long legs and big chests."

"And what do you go for?"

He smiled.  "Short, brown eyes, long, black hair, incredibly long 
eyelashes, olive skin."  He trailed off and then looked away, 
embarrassed.  "Everything I'm not."

"She sounds lovely," I said, thinking of the young girl from the 
mall.  I hoped she had a good date tonight too.  I'd just stopped 
in the Sears to pick up some pantyhose and a new coffee pot because 
ours had broken.  I'd ended up spending hours with the girl.  
Something about her drew me to her.  She looked so forlorn and lost 
staring at the racks of clothes.

She reminded me of myself at that age, awkward, shy and nerdy, and 
new in town.  When I'd gotten a look at her though, she'd been 
lovely.  It was too bad she didn't have a woman or mother in her 
life who could help her with those things. 

I held up the car keys.  "Well, have a good time, Devlin.  Drive 
carefully.  You put a scratch on your father's car and he'll kill 
you."

He chuckled.  "I'll be careful," he promised, taking the keys from 
me.  He kissed me on the cheek and headed for the door.

"Hey, if there's time, bring her home afterwards so we can meet 
her."

"I'll see how it works out."

"Don't forget, midnight."

He stopped and looked back at me.  "We discussed this last night.  
I thought I could stay out until 1:00 AM now as long as you and Dad 
know where I am."

"All right, just thought I'd keep you on your toes," I teased.

"'Bye," he tossed over his shoulder as he went out the door.  I 
sighed.  He really was almost all grown up.  I was so glad he'd 
found someone who interested him.  I didn't think he was ever going 
to date.  I wondered if he was still a virgin.  I thought he was 
and I knew that was unusual for boys his age nowadays, but I was 
glad he hadn't rushed into anything.  There was a lot about Devlin 
that reminded me of myself and of the way Mulder might have been at 
this age if he'd had a better life.

I knew Mulder had given him the safe sex talk earlier.  Devlin had 
assured him they were nowhere near that stage, this was their first 
real date.  He'd teased Mulder about being corny again and told him 
he was about four years too late for the sex education talk.

Mulder came down the stairs and said, "Did he leave yet?"

"Just went out the door."

He came over to me and put his arms around me, resting his chin on 
the top of my head.  This was a familiar pose for us, a comfortable 
habit formed over the years.  "Where are the twins?  I'd thought 
they would be back by now."

"Mom called and said they wanted to stay another night and could 
she keep them?"

He chuckled.  "Gee, that's too bad.  We have the house all to 
ourselves 'til later tonight.  What shall we do?"

"Gee, I don't know.  Have any suggestions?"

"Well, you did promise me that I would be busy tonight.  Very, very 
busy is the phrase you used, if I remember correctly."

I whooped as he bent down suddenly and picked me up in a baby 
carry.  My arms went around his neck and he grinned down at me.  "I 
can think of something."

Without another word, he headed for the stairs.  We weren't as 
young as we used to be though, and he was panting slightly as he 
reached the top of the staircase.  "Put me down before you have a 
heart attack," I teased.

He gave me an insulted look and kept walking.  He made it to bed 
but then let go suddenly and I dropped like a stone onto the 
mattress, bouncing and laughing.  "You almost dropped me, didn't 
you?" I teased.

He grinned.  "No way.  I meant to do that."

"Yeah, sure, right," I returned.

He growled and jumped onto the bed, making the springs creak.  He 
stalked over to me until he was straddling me where I lay on my 
back.  We grinned at each other and then his smile faded.  "You are 
so damn beautiful, Scully."

"I think you need glasses," I teased.

He smiled again.  "Already have them."

"You don't have them on."

"Don't need them this close," he said and lowered his mouth to 
mine.  I felt arousal zip through me like it did every time he 
kissed me.  I was amazed at the passion that still flared between 
us, despite our hectic lives and kids wearing us down.

After a short make out session, we both got up and shed our 
clothes, climbing back in under the covers.

XXXXXXXXXX NC-17 PORTION XXXXXXXXXX

Ten years together and she could still excite me like a teenager.  
I couldn't believe it sometimes.  Her skin was just as silky as it 
ever was.  Her plump lips never failed to drive me to distraction.  

I moved my hands up the outside of her thighs and around the side 
of her hips until I found her ass.  She lifted her hips and I slid 
underneath, cupping her firmly and leaning down to kiss her again.  
I squeezed her ass cheeks and then rubbed them all over.

I could feel my cock pulsing as it rose to full bloom.  I reached 
down to find her wet and ready for me.  "Do you need me to go down 
on you?"  There was a time when saying those things embarrassed us, 
but not any more.  We had the advantage of long familiarity with 
each other's likes and dislikes.

"No, come here."  She reached down and guided me into her.

I pushed into her in one long stroke and groaned, "Ohhh, God, 
Scully."  She was tight, but so relaxed and wet I slid right in 
with no trouble.

"I know," she whispered.  Then she gasped as I began to slide 
slowly in and out.  "Jesus, how can it always be this good?" she 
mumbled.

"I don't know," I breathed out.

"It was a rhetorical question," she joked.

I smiled and kept up my slow pace.  I was past the ability to do it 
multiple times in one night, so I took my time, wanting to draw it 
out as long as possible.  We rarely had the time to do that 
anymore.

I loved all the experimenting we did in our early time together, 
but I still enjoyed the good old missionary position.  There was 
something about having her under me that thrilled me to no end.  I 
loved to watch her face as we made love and watch her arousal grow 
with every stroke.  I knew this wasn't the best position for her, 
but we'd learned long ago to compensate and help each other and 
ourselves.

I leaned in to kiss her again and my one hand slid down to cup her 
breast and tweak her nipple.  She moaned into my mouth and I sped 
up slightly, but still kept things languid and pretty relaxed.  I 
grasped her behind one knee, raising her leg up and out.  I sank 
deeper and she groaned, "Oh Jesus, Mulder."  

She reached between us when I lifted up slightly and began to rub 
her clitoris against our joining.  I could feel her fingers sliding 
against my cock and it felt terrific.  I moaned and covered her 
mouth again with mine.  Her hand was crushed between us but still 
moving and she didn't seem to mind. 

She sucked on my lower lip and I thought I was going lose it.  I 
moaned into her mouth and we continued to kiss.  Her other hand 
came up to run through my hair, scratching my scalp lightly and I 
felt tingles race down my spine and curl in my balls.

I sped up, lifting myself off her to give her room.  I felt the 
first tell tale signs of my impending orgasm.  My balls tightened 
and I moaned again, speeding up again, unable to help myself.  "Oh, 
baby, come for me," I coaxed.

She moaned and her fingers sped up on her clitoris.  Without 
warning, I felt her climax.  She arched her back and cried out as 
her muscles milked my shaft.

I shouted and let myself go, emptying into her in several long, 
drawn out ejaculations that left my muscles quivering.  I collapsed 
onto her small frame, and snuggled my nose into her neck.  

XXXXXXXXXX END NC-17 PORTION XXXXXXXXXX

Continued Part 4 of 10