Part Three


Disclaimer and other stuff in Prologue


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The Thirteen Days Of Christmas-December 26: St. Stephen's Day


     Scully sat at the desk in the spare bedroom, 
finishing up some paperwork.  As much as she'd tried 
to finish before the holidays, there was still so much 
to do.  Most of it was wrapping up casework, like the 
autopsy report she was working on now.  She finished 
it and picked up the next one on the low stack and 
groaned.

     Expense reports, the bane of every working 
person's existence.  Her eyes moved over the paper, 
recognizing hotel rooms, meals at restaurants, car 
rentals, sunflower seeds.

     Sunflower seeds?

     Scully sighed.  There was only one person she 
knew who would even try and write off sunflower 
seeds as a business expense.  "Hey, Mulder, come 
here a second," she called out.

     Mulder strolled into the spare bedroom, looking 
very relaxed in a grey T-shirt and jeans.  "Yeah?" 
he asked.

     Scully held up the expense report in her hand 
and had an arched eyebrow and a sort of smile on her 
face.  "Sunflower seeds?" was all she asked.

     To her surprise, Mulder looked down and scuffed 
his shoe on the floor.  "I figured it was worth a 
shot," he said, "just hoping that Finances wouldn't 
check that thoroughly and they'd just let it slide by."

     She handed him the report.  "You tried the same 
thing a few months ago, and they didn't buy it then 
either."

     Mulder took the report and tossed it on the 
floor.  He knelt down in front of Scully's chair 
and wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her 
close to him.  "I've got a better idea," he said as 
he leaned in to kiss her.  Scully moaned appreciatively 
and wrapped her arms around his neck.  This was 
something they both enjoyed.  Scully insisted that 
Mulder had an extremely talented mouth while Mulder 
said that he wasn't doing anything special, he just 
really liked kissing Scully.  As he began kissing his 
way down her neck he mumbled, "Rhiannon's asleep in her 
playpen, so we'll have plenty of time."  Scully just 
nodded, enjoying the feel of Mulder's lips on her neck 
too much to speak.

     At that moment, displaying that timing which has 
gotten its compatriots damaged in the past, the phone 
rang.  "The answering machine'll get it," Scully said, 
running her hands over Mulder's head.

     "Gladly," Mulder said, and resumed his work.  A 
few rings later they realized that the ringing was not 
that of the house phone, but of Mulder's cellphone, one 
of the only ways most people they knew could reach them 
when they were at the apartment.  They both sighed 
regretfully and pulled apart.  Scully reached onto 
the desk for the phone as Mulder slumped onto the 
floor and leaned his back against the chair.  She 
handed him the phone and he clicked it on.  "Mulder," 
he said gruffly.

     "Mulder, you sound a little out of breath, are 
you okay?" Frohike's voice came over the cell.

     'I'll give you okay you little troll,' Mulder 
thought to himself, gritting his teeth.  "I was just 
out jogging," he quickly made up.

     "Ah, that's why we couldn't reach you at home," 
Frohike affirmed.  "Hey, remember that UFO footage 
we were telling you about last week?  Well we got a 
clip of it and are going to pull it apart.  You really 
have to be here for this."

     "Look, Frohike, I'm a little busy right now," 
Mulder said, desperately wishing he could get back 
to what (or who) he was doing.

     He heard Langly shouting in the background and 
then Frohike spoke again.  "It has to be today, some 
of this equipment is out on loan and it's got to go 
back tomorrow."

     Mulder slouched against Scully's chair.  Yes, 
he did want to go look at the footage, it was a rare 
find, but there was also something here which he 
wanted to look at also.  He looked up at the touch 
of Scully's hand on his shoulder.  She looked down 
at him with a knowing look on her face.  "Go," she 
mouthed at him, knowing he'd be kicking himself for 
the rest of the day if he didn't.

     He turned back to the phone.  "Okay, I'll be 
there as soon as possible."  He clicked the phone 
off and tossed it back on the desk.  He turned 
around and got back onto his knees.  "Thank you," 
he said.

     "You're welcome," Scully replied, and leaned 
forward to kiss him quickly.  "Now get going so 
you can please the three stooges and get home 
faster."

     After Mulder left Scully moved into the living 
room so she could keep an eye on the sleeping 
Rhiannon.  When she had gotten to the tenth piece of 
paper she decided that the only point to paperwork was 
to piss off already tired FBI agents.  She thought the 
next time she ever brought work home with her during a 
vacation someone should just give her a good hard thump 
on the head.

     The doorbell rang, giving Scully a welcome break 
from the paperwork from hell.  She got up and pulled 
open the door to see a rather bedraggled Nora standing 
there holding a measuring cup in one hand.  "Do you 
have any breadcrumbs?" Nora asked.

     Scully held the door open wider and motioned her 
to follow her to the kitchen.  "What's the breadcrumbs 
for?" Scully asked as she opened the pantry door.

     "My attempt to salvage Christmas dinner leftovers," 
Nora sighed, brushing some wavy blond hair back from the 
ponytail it had escaped from.  "Crown Roast Casserole, 
and I'm all out of breadcrumbs."

     "Crown Roast Casserole?" Scully echoed.

     "It's an experiment," Nora said, leaning against 
the counter.  "How to get rid of leftovers without the 
family complaining that they don't want day old food."

     "I'm glad I'm not there yet," Scully said, her 
voice sounding strange from the depths of the closet.

     "Just you wait, Dana," Nora said, "Soon you'll 
have a kid complaining that you ate this last night 
and a husband begging for a homecooked meal."

     Scully grunted as she moved a box to get to the 
bread crumbs.  "I'll have you know that my husband is 
perfectly happy with pizza and take out Chinese," she 
said as she pulled a small carton of breadcrumbs out 
of the pantry.  "Here you go."

     "Thanks," Nora said.  "But seriously, the day 
will come when they will be expecting you to spend 
an hour slaving over a meal that will be gone in 
ten minutes."

     Scully shook her head and perched herself on 
the edge of the table.  "Not Mulder.  He's just a 
bit different like that.  Besides, with both our 
work schedules we hardly have the time to spend 
cooking.  It's an awful lot easier to pop something 
in the microwave or call for a delivery."

     "So let me get this straight, Mulder has never 
demanded that you make him a big meal because he's 
had a long and tiring day at work?" Nora smirked.

     "No because I'm usually just as tired as he is," 
Scully assured.

     Nora nodded.  "Oh yeah.  Sorry, I forgot for a 
second there that you two work together also.  Isn't 
that hard though?  I mean, seeing him all day at work, 
but then coming home to see him too?  Don't you ever 
get tired of it?"

     "Tired of it?  No, I don't.  At work we're 
professional, with a pretty strict hands off policy.  
But at home we can relax and just...just be ourselves," 
Scully smiled.

     "Well whatever it is it must be working,"  Nora 
said.  "I haven't heard a fight yet."  She reached an 
arm back to knock on the wall behind her.  "Good old 
paper thin walls.  They can't even stand up to a kid's 
bike crashing into it."

     Scully laughed.  "Why do I get the feeling you've 
had personal experience with that?  As for the fights, 
Mulder and I do, they're just mostly work related and 
happen there.  At home though we get along.  Except 
when he leaves the toilet seat up in the middle of 
the night and I end up falling in."

     Nora chortled.  "Oh, do I know that one!  Oh, 
well, I better be getting back now before dinner 
becomes even more of a mess than I'm anticipating.  
I'll see you later!"  She walked out the door and 
Scully shut it behind her. 

     Scully turned back to the coffee table with the 
paperwork spread out on it.  She took a deep breath 
and steeled herself to do battle with the monster of 
the bureaucratic system.


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     Some hours later Scully sat on the floor of the 
bathroom trying to bathe a squirming Rhiannon, who 
was having a grand time playing in the baby-safe 
bubble bath.  Her sleeves were rolled up and towels 
covered the floor in preparation for a dousing that 
was traditional during bath time.  She scooped up some 
clear water in a cup and poured it over Rhiannon's hair, 
rinsing the shampoo out of it.  Rhiannon giggled and 
splashed some more water around, soaking Scully's 
shirt once more.

     She looked down at herself, and then over at 
Rhiannon, who sat in the tub with an impish smile 
on her face.  "Don't give me that look," Scully 
said jokingly.  "I'd say you are just about done 
in there," she said, and pulled Rhiannon out, setting 
her down on one of the towels on the floor.  She 
grabbed a big, fluffy towel off the rack and wrapped 
the little girl tightly in it.

     From outside the bathroom she heard the front 
door open and close, and Mulder call out.  "Hey, 
Scully."

     "I'm in here, Mulder," she replied.  Mulder 
walked into the bathroom and greeted Scully and 
Rhiannon with a kiss each.  "How was the Gunmen's?" 
she asked.

     "Well the video was a hoax, which they should 
have expected since their source who supplied them 
with the video called himself 'Dr. Spock.'," Mulder 
said.  "Anything I can do in here?" he asked.

     "Yeah," Scully said, and handed Rhiannon over 
to him.  "Get her into her pajamas while I change 
my clothes."

     "She got you again, didn't she?" Mulder said 
as Rhiannon giggled.

     "What does it look like?" Scully said as she 
left the bathroom and headed for the master bedroom.

     Mulder carried Rhiannon into her own room and 
pulled out a clean diaper and sleeper.  He dried her 
off and put her in them, then he carried her back into 
their room where Scully had changed into her own 
pajamas of a deep blue silk color.  "Her hairbrush 
is on the dresser over there, could you please get it 
for me?" she asked.  Mulder complied and set both 
Rhiannon and the hairbrush down on the bed.

     As Scully brushed out Rhiannon's fine baby hair 
Mulder left the room.  When he came back he was now 
without shoes and jacket and carrying something behind 
his back.  She set the brush down on the nighttable 
and brought Rhiannon closer to her.  "What do you 
have there, Mulder?"

     Mulder grinned and pulled his hand out from 
behind his back, revealing Scully's book.  "Story?" 
he asked, imitating Rhiannon's speech.

     "Get over here," Scully said, and Mulder crawled 
up onto the bed next to them.  "You want to read this 
chapter?" she asked.

     He shrugged.  "Okay.  What page were we on?" 
he asked.

     "Page 21, I think," Scully supplied.

     "Gotcha."
         

          'St. Stephen's Day was the only day of the 
           year on which all the boys in the town 
           were up well before seven.  It was still 
           dark when the streets rang with their 
           shrill, hopeful whistling for snow.  A 
           snowball fight was the best of all the
           Stephen's day battles; they would come 
           Stumbling home from it clogged and 
           choked and drenched with snow, breathless 
           and frozen, their eyes stinging and 
           their knuckles raw.  But this year,
           the stream ran freely down the gutter 
           and the wind blew from the southwest, 
           smelling of the fields; there was no 
           real hope of snow today...'


     By the time Mulder had finished the chapter, both 
Scully and Rhiannon were fast asleep, leaning against 
a pile of pillows.  Mulder closed the book and laid 
down next to them, closing his eyes.  Within seconds 
he was fast asleep along with them.


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End of Part Three-December 26: St. Stephen's Day