Part Six


Disclaimer and archiving info in Prologue


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The Thirteen Days Of Christmas-
December 29: St. Thomas of Canterbury's Day


     "I really don't want to do this," Scully sighed, 
standing in front of the closet, dressed in a robe, 
trying to decide what to wear.

     "What's the big deal?" Mulder said, lounging on 
the bed.  "It's just a lunch with your mother."

     "But I got a message from mom this morning on 
my cell.  Bill's coming too," she noted Mulder's 
grimace here, "and he's bringing an old friend of 
his, which means he's going on his 'get Dana a normal 
life' campaign, which to him means me quitting the FBI 
to become a pediatrician and settling down with a nice 
safe man."  She wore a grimace of her own by this time.

     "And it's been fully established that you don't 
want normal," Mulder grinned.

     "I'd say so," Scully said, pulling a pair of 
pants out only to put them back in and began riffling 
through again.  "Which leaves me with very few 
options.  One, I go out with the guy once and tell him 
afterwards it's not going to work."  She turned just 
in time to see the sick look Mulder was giving her.  
"An idea which appeals to neither of us, which leaves 
me with the second option: telling Bill flat out no 
which will spur on a big waste of breath on how you've 
'corrupted' me, getting Mom very agitated.  Then by 
the time it kicks in that I've been ignoring him 
everyone will be extremely uncomfortable and I'll 
just leave, essentially telling Bill to mind his 
own business."  Scully finally decided on a pair 
of pants and pulled them on.  "So you see, neither 
option is one I really like."

     "Didn't you say something similar happened at 
Christmas?" Mulder asked.

     "Yeah, although I left before Bill got really 
bad.  I don't think I'll have that option now," 
Scully said, pulling a white blouse on.  She sat 
back on the bed and reached for her socks and shoes.  
"Sometimes I just want to tell him so he'll shut up," 
she said.

     "I'll bring the camera, and then I'll leave out 
the back door because he'll be sure to kill me," 
Mulder said, coming to kneel behind Scully on the bed.

     "You carry a gun, you can handle him," Scully 
grinned, leaning back against him.

     "He'll still want to kill me though," Mulder 
said, pulling Scully tighter against him.

     "Then Mom will intervene.  She doesn't share 
Bill's viewpoint of you."

     Mulder sighed.  "Sometimes I wonder if he's got 
a point," he said somberly.

     Scully bit the inside of her cheek.  Mulder's 
guilt trip was nothing new to her, and she elbowed 
him in the stomach.  "Quit the guilt trip, Mulder," 
she said.  "You are not the son of a bitch Bill thinks 
you are.  You are a good man who would go to the ends 
of the earth for his partner."

     "No, not a partner," Mulder said, kissing the 
side of her neck, "for you."

     "There's not much difference there," she smirked.  
"But don't worry about how Bill feels.  I'm not looking 
for his approval, just to make him aware of the 
situation."  She paused for a moment.  "And to see the 
look on his face when it sinks in what I've told him," 
she amended.

     "Enjoying the simpler things in life," Mulder 
grinned.

     Scully turned in his arms to face him.  "What 
are you going to do today while I'm out?" she asked.

     Mulder shrugged.  "Oh, you know, just bum around."

     She arched an eyebrow.  "I've seen you bored, 
Mulder.  It's not a pretty sight."

     He grinned.  "Okay.  Actually I was planning 
to call my grandmother.  I haven't spoken to her 
in a while and it's a good time to call."  Mulder 
bit his lip, wondering how Scully would take the 
next thing about to say.  "I was also wondering 
if we should tell her about Rhiannon."

     Scully moved back slightly to look Mulder in 
the eye.  "Mulder, I thought we agreed not to tell 
anyone yet."

     "I know," Mulder nodded.  "But I just keep 
thinking that if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be 
here today.  God only knows what would have happened 
if I'd have stayed with my parents, and I want to 
show her that it was worth something, that all her 
hard work with me didn't just go to waste."

     Scully ran a hand through his hair, stroking 
the skin.  Even though their original plan was to 
keep everything a secret, they both knew that someday 
it would come out, and as for a starting place, it 
was better than some of the people she could have 
imagined.  "If you do want to tell her, Mulder, 
make sure she knows a few things, like that this 
is a secret, and we need it kept up until a certain 
point in time.  And that it could possibly be dangerous 
for her to know it."

     Mulder nodded.  "I will make her aware of what 
could possibly happen before telling her anything."  
He leaned forward and kissed her.  "Thank you," he 
whispered.

     Scully smiled.  "It's going to have to come out 
into the open someday," she whispered back.  "This is 
a better place to start than some things I could think 
of."  She got a glimpse of the clock and pulled away.  
"Oh, damn, I'm going to be late."  She kissed him 
good-bye and stood up.  "Tell me what happens later, 
okay?  I'll see you soon."

     Mulder followed her out of the room with his 
eyes, then he hoisted himself off the bed.  As he 
walked out of the room he thought about what he was 
going to do.  Telling his grandmother was something 
he had wanted to do for a long while, he knew she 
would be the one person who would appreciate what 
she was hearing.  And he did want to prove to her 
that he did turn out well, actually, that something 
finally went right for him, that even though the past 
was bad everything turned out all right.

     He walked into Rhiannon's room, where she was 
still thankfully fast asleep in her crib.  She'd 
given them a hard time last night, after taking a 
long nap the other afternoon she'd been wired until 
practically 4 a.m., when they finally got her to 
sleep.  He ran his hand gently over the back of her 
head, and then walked out into the living room.

     Mulder picked up the phone and sat down on the 
couch, steeling himself for what he was about to do.  
He dialed in the number and listened as the phone 
rang on the other end.  Soon someone picked up.  
"Hello," a female voice said.

     "Hi, Penny, it's Mulder," he said.  Penny 
Liu-Cooper was the cook who had been working for his
grandmother for longer than he could remember, even 
though his grandmother ended up cooking half of the 
meals herself.

     "Hey!" she said.  "Long time no hear from you."

     "Work's been pretty busy lately," Mulder said, 
resorting to a familiar answer.

     "You want to talk to your grandma?" Penny said.

     "Yeah, please?"

     "No problem, she'll be right there."

     Mulder waited until he heard his grandmother's 
voice.  "Hello, Fox," Vera Mulder said, sounding 
younger than her years.

     "Hi, Gram.  Merry Christmas," he said 
conversationally.

     "Same to you," Vera said, the smile in her voice 
coming through over the phone lines.

     "Did anyone show up there this year?" Mulder asked.

     "Of course.  Someone always shows up, you know 
that.  How has work been lately?" she asked, changing 
the subject.

     "Busy," Mulder sighed.  "Nothing new there 
though," he said, trying not to get too deep into 
details.

     "Can you get any time off?" Vera said.

     "Yeah, I've got some time off over the holidays," 
Mulder confirmed.  "Why?"

     "Come up for a visit then," she said.  "Just, do 
it around January second.  I'm loaning my house out for 
a New Year's Eve party and the next day the cleaning 
crew's coming through."

     Mulder laughed lightly.  Vera still loved parties, 
that never changed.  He grew serious though.  "Uh, 
Gram, can I ask you a question?"

     "Go ahead, Fox."

     He took a deep breath, trying to figure out the 
exact wording of what he was about to ask without 
revealing too much.  "If...if someone were to tell 
you a secret, a dangerous secret, that could get you 
into trouble if the wrong people knew that you knew, 
what would you do?"

     Vera gave a little laugh.  "The way I grew up 
you had to know how to keep a secret.  But if someone 
told me something important, I would keep it secret, 
and if someone knew that I knew, I'm not going to 
tell.  It's a matter of integrity, Fox, and being 
true to the people who trust you.  And if it's your 
secret," she said, making a guess, "then you know I 
won't tell, no matter what people try to do."

     Mulder sighed and relaxed into the couch.  He 
knew deep down that his grandmother would keep a 
secret, but he liked to be reassured.  "Okay.  Thanks."

     "Are you still going to be able to come up?" 
Vera asked.

     "I'll be there," Mulder said.  "Uh, I'm also 
going to bring someone with me.  There's someone 
I'd like you to meet."

     "All right.  I'll see you then.  Bye, Fox."

     "Bye Gram," Mulder said, and hung up the phone.  
Now all he had to do was convince Scully to go with 
him.


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     Mulder heard the front door slam from where he 
was in Rhiannon's bedroom.  Judging by the sound of 
the slam, things didn't go so well.  Or rather, exactly 
as she'd predicted.  He sat back in the old rocking 
chair with Rhiannon on his lap and waited for Scully's 
entrance.

     Soon she stood in the doorway with a cross between 
a harried and a pissed off look on her face.  "How'd it 
go?" Mulder asked.

     Scully sighed.  "I'd tell you what I'm thinking but 
I'm not going to use those words with Rhiannon around."  
She walked over to sit down in front of the chair.  
Rhiannon saw her and squirmed around on Mulder's lap 
until he slid her into Scully's waiting arms.  "Do you 
know what Bill told me?"

     "What?" Mulder asked, not liking the way things 
were going.

     "He said that yesterday when he went to the 
supermarket he saw you making out with some woman 
in one of the aisles."

     "He said what?!?" Mulder yelped, practically 
jumping out of the chair.

     "Which I know wasn't true because I spent most 
of the day with you," Scully soothed him.  "I know 
you were here with me and with Rhiannon and when I 
went out for a little while you were here baby-sitting."  
Mulder nodded vigorously.  "But Bill was being adamant 
that you were there, and I told him that I had spoken 
to you on the phone yesterday and that you hadn't 
mentioned anything about that."  Scully hesitated 
a bit.  "But to make a long story short we're still 
not getting along."

     Mulder could just tell though that she was 
leaving something out.  "What aren't you telling 
me?" he asked with a small smirk on his face.

     Scully's eyes wandered around the room, looking 
everywhere but at him.  Her hands kept stroking 
Rhiannon's back.  "I, uh, I basically ended up slapping 
him across the face and then storming out of the 
restaurant."  Mulder tried hard not to laugh, but it 
didn't work and he soon began to snicker.  Scully let 
out a little laugh of her own.  "Judging by the look 
on Mom's face though she was pretty close to thumping 
him upside the head also, I just got there first."

     "Of all the times I really wished I had a camera 
this is one of them," Mulder grinned at her.  He 
reached onto the changing table and pulled the Christmas 
book off of it.  "While we're all together, wanna do a 
little reading?"

     Scully eagerly accepted the book.  "Yeah, I need 
something to calm me down."


          'Next morning when the doorbell rang, the
           Kitsons were having breakfast in the parlor.
           Annaple flushed and went on stirring sugar
           into her porridge--"If you marry Francis,"
           Christopher said, "you needn't ever lift a
           spoon again"--Papa looked at the ceiling, and
           Prudence and James and Christopher ran for the
           stairs.  Annaple began, "Don't be so 
           inquisitive--" but the were already out of
           earshot.

              There was a crowd in the street.  A man
           with a cage of songbirds.  A man with a
           cage of turtledoves.  A man with three
           furious French hens.  A man with a partridge
           clucking anxiously in a pear tree.  A man
           with six bottles of wine.  Two workmen with
           tools and wood.  A farmer's boy with a sack
           of corn.  A crowd of children.  Several women
           who were on their way to marker and had stopped
           to see the fun.  "Whatever is it, then?  Is it
           true what they're saying, that Francis Vere's
           trying to persuade her, but she won't have him?"
           (Annaple, watching from the parlor window, drew
           back quickly when she saw the women.)  And last
           of all, a boy with a large wicker basket....'


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     When Scully was finished reading she closed 
the book and turned to Mulder.  "What did your 
grandmother say?" she asked.

     "Well, I didn't tell her just yet," Mulder 
said, "but I asked a vague question just to make 
sure that she would keep a secret, which was really 
unnecessary, but it just felt nice to hear it.  She 
did invite me to come up and visit though, after New 
Year's.  Do you want to come?" he asked Scully.  "We 
could get some time off from work and we could 
introduce her to Rhiannon together," he said, 
almost shyly.

     Scully's face broke into a grin.  "I'd like 
that," she smiled at him.


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End Part Six-December 29: St. Thomas of Canterbury's Day