Title: The Thirteen Days Of Christmas
Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono
Rating: PG
Category: Story, Romance
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance
Spoilers: Memento Mori, Emily, The End, Fight the Future,
          How The Ghosts Stole Christmas, Sixth
          Extinction, Amor Fati
Summary: On the day of Emily's funeral, Scully makes a 
         life-changing decision.  Two years later, we 
         see the result of her decision as it affects 
         her and Mulder.

Archive: wherever, Gossamer and Spookys Site especially, 
            anyone aside from those two just tell me 
            where's it's going.

Feedback: will be gratefully accepted at RhiaRamsay@aol.com

Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully are not mine, did you really 
think they were?  I own Rhiannon Snow, and book 
'The Thirteen Days Of Christmas' was written by 
Jenny Overton.


The Thirteen Days of Christmas
Elizabeth L. Iacono

Prologue
January 6, 1998

     Dana Scully stood over Emily's coffin with a look 
of indescribable sadness on her face.  She'd hoped that 
even with the biotechnology company's rush to clean up 
everything they would at least be able to leave her 
little girl's body behind for a proper burial.  But 
they were thorough, and Emily's body was replaced 
with sandbags.

     She reached down into the casket and sifted 
through the sand, swirling the grains around with 
her fingers until she found what she was looking 
for.  She pulled the small gold cross out of the 
sand and held it up, the edges catching the light 
as it twisted and turned.  She stood there for what 
seemed like hours, her mind going over the events of 
the past few days.  In that time she had come to an 
important decision.

     Fox Mulder walked up silently behind her and 
placed his hands on her shoulders.  He had known 
this would happen, even though for once he didn't 
want to believe.  These people were too good to let 
something like this slip through their fingers.  He 
looked down at Scully, practically frozen there with 
the chain of her cross tangled up in her fingers.  
Mulder reached over and carefully untangled it from 
her fingers, watching her hand drop to rest on the 
lip of the coffin.  He opened the clasp, slid the 
chain around her neck and fastened it back together.  
He replaced his hands on her shoulders and pressed his 
face against the top of her head.  "I am so sorry," he 
whispered, knowing that while Emily was a miracle not 
meant to be, Scully was still aching from the loss of 
her.

     Scully sighed and felt her body sag, the energy 
fading away.  Mulder's hands slid down her arms and 
wrapped around her waist, giving her the support she 
needed.  She took a deep breath and released it with 
a shuddering sigh.  She'd made her decision and now 
was the time to tell Mulder about it.  He was the one 
who made it all possible.  "Mulder?" she said softly.  
His hands tightened on her waist and his head moved so 
that he could speak directly into her ear.

     "Yeah?" he whispered.

     "I'd like to try it," she said, rubbing his hands 
with hers.


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     The 'it' in question was something they had talked 
about the night after Emily died, but it had its roots 
in their own relationship, the decidedly non-professional 
and non-platonic one.  After Scully's cancer went into 
remission the past spring, both of them had come to the 
conclusion that time was far too precious to waste and 
they would enjoy the rest of their time together.  The 
only hitch was that the relationship had to stay secret 
from everyone.  But that didn't bother them, they had 
each other, as cheesy as it sounds.

     Soon after the discovery of Emily, Scully confessed 
to Mulder that she was infertile.  And right after that 
Mulder confessed that she wasn't quite as infertile as 
she thought.  What had happened was this: after telling 
Scully to stop the cancer treatment Dr. Scanlon was 
giving her, Mulder returned to the Lombard Clinic, 
where the Kurts were busy packing up to move to another 
location, hopefully more secret than their latest one.  
The Kurts had a little present for Mulder before they 
left.  The rest of Scully's ova that were in their 
possession were still viable, and they presented that 
to him "just in case".  Right now the ova were stored 
at a fertility clinic well checked over by the Gunmen 
although they didn't quite know what for.

     Naturally, Scully was mad at first because Mulder 
had kept this from her, but in the end she was grateful.  
New options were opening up to her.  Which led her to 
where she was now, standing in front of her dead 
daughter's coffin making a major decision in her life.


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     "I'd like to try it," Scully said, rubbing his 
hands with hers.

     Mulder's grip tightened reflexively on her waist.  
"Are you sure?" he asked, wondering how well she had 
thought out this idea or if it was just a product of 
her grief.

     Scully nodded.  "Yeah.  I mean, I know I won't 
be able to carry a baby if we do it right now, not 
with the way work is at the moment, it would raise 
too many questions and I can't leave you now.  But 
I checked at the clinic and they have an excellent 
surrogate mother program.  I would love to carry my 
own child, and I know that right now is not the time 
for it that way, but I still want this," she said.

     The next question Mulder was almost positive 
about the answer, but he asked anyway to comfort 
his own mind.  "What about a father?"

     She snorted lightly, the closest she'd come to 
a laugh in days.  "Mulder, you know who's going to 
fill that position.  This isn't going to be just my 
child, it's going to be our child."

     "Why do I feel like it's time to propose then?" 
Mulder asked, resting his chin on her head.

     "I wish you could," Scully sighed.  "That would 
be attracting way too much attention though.  But," 
she sighed again "all a marriage certificate is is a 
piece of paper.  I'm going to call the clinic as soon 
as we get back to D.C."

     "I'll be right there with you then," Mulder said.


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     Once they got home the calls were made and the 
arrangements finalized.  The surrogate mother was 
chosen and checked over thoroughly through various 
F.B.I. databases.  They didn't want to take the 
chance of the surrogate absconding with their baby.  
It was rare, but it had happened, and Mulder and Scully 
wanted to avoid that.  At the end of January the in 
vitro process was performed and a month later the 
pregnancy was confirmed.

     Then Mulder and Scully came up with their own 
plans.  With the death of Mulder's father he's come 
into a good amount of money, which up until then had 
spent most of the time sitting in a bank account.  Now 
though, he had a more important reason to use it.  
They rented an apartment in an old fashioned building 
in a small Chesepeake Bay town a little ways out of 
D.C.  It was a nice place, on the fifth floor (the 
highest in the building) and the master bedroom had 
a wonderful view of the water, something that really 
endeared to Scully.  This was where the child would 
be raised.  They were going to try and keep the 
baby away from their known residences, where there 
was a greater chance of getting found out.  The next 
thing they did was to hire a nanny (put through 
another series of vigorous background checks).  As 
much as they hated to leave their child with someone 
else, they knew it was necessary because their work 
schedules were not very child accommodating at all.  
In the meanwhile life went on around them, a hectic 
time involving the return of old 'friends', fires, 
and a little side trip to Antarctica.

     But while Mulder and Scully's professional life 
was on the rocks, their personal life was on a turn 
for the better.  That September 21st, soon after that 
Antarctica fiasco the baby was born.  It was a little 
girl, with wispy red hair and Scully's blue eyes, 
although Scully was positive she had Mulder's lips 
(which, all in all was not a bad thing).  Mulder 
turned the job of naming the baby over to Scully, 
and she gave her the name of Rhiannon Snow, Rhiannon 
after Melissa's favorite myth, and Snow after something 
Mulder had said Samantha loved.

     Throughout the whole thing no one ever found out.  
As much as Mrs. Scully would love to have another 
grandchild, for this child's protection she couldn't 
know.  Added to this list was the rest of Scully's 
family (although that may have been a good thing in 
Bill's case), Mrs. Mulder, Skinner, The Lone Gunmen, 
and pretty much everyone else.  They figured when the 
whole thing came out sometime in the future a lot of 
people would be mad at them for not being told, but 
at the moment Mulder and Scully's biggest concern 
was their daughter.

     Rhiannon had a positive effect on Mulder and 
Scully.  Aside from one little spat that February, 
their partnership, in both definitions, was stronger 
than ever.  Through everything that happened, each 
was what the other needed to help them, to either 
ground them in reality or help them to take leaps 
of faith.  And at home with Rhiannon, even though 
they sometimes had fights which could blast the 
paint off the walls (they never could stay mad at 
the other for too long though), they were happy.

     Before they knew it, time passed.  Rhiannon 
turned one year old, and Christmas and the anniversary 
of Emily were soon approaching.  For the past few 
years, Christmas for Scully had been spattered with 
sad memories and events.  This year though was going 
to be different.  The sad memories would be there, 
yes, but they would now be replaced by new and 
wonderful memories and traditions.  She now had a 
wonderful lover and a beautiful daughter to share 
the holiday with.

     Scully walked over to a bookcase that was in 
the apartment and trailed her finger along the titles 
there, looking for the thin book with the baby blue 
dustcover.  It was a tradition that she'd made for 
herself over the years, ever since she'd gotten the 
book in 1972.  She had always planned that when she 
had children of her own she would share the tradition 
with them too.  She glanced over at the small calendar 
on the desk near the bookcase, and smiled when she saw 
the date, today's date of December 24th, marked off 
with a 'X' that she had put there.

     Her finger snagged on a piece of paper, and when 
she turned her attention back to the bookshelf she saw 
that it was the book she was looking for.  Scully 
pulled the book off the shelf and ran a hand over 
the still glossy cover.  She turned around to face 
the center of the living room, where Mulder and 
Rhiannon were playing on the floor, Rhiannon having 
a delightful time with scraps of wrapping paper and 
Mulder with a bright smile on his face rarely seen 
anywhere else.  Scully smiled herself, knowing that 
for once, things were perfect.  She looked down at 
the book once more, and knew that tonight would be 
the start of a new tradition they would keep for years.


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End of Prologue