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nemocat-el · 1 month ago

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Part 1

A sort of canon divergent/post IWTB fic where they separate as normal but William lives with them and he goes between their houses like a child of divorced parents. (will get a proper title and summary when it's not 1am)

...

The car pulls into her drive on Sunday night at 6:30pm exactly.

William has been fed (a forbidden burger from Wendy’s and a shake but that was their secret) he’s even had a shower since this Sunday was Will’s first baseball meet of the month. Now their son had been delivered full and clean back to his mother, back to his permanent home.

The hallway light turns on. Will is grabbing his bags as Mulder’s stomach clenches, as it always does every Sunday, at the opportunity to see her.

“See you next week Dad,” Will says, hand on the car door as he pushes it open.

Mulder turns away from the front door. “See you next week,” he answers back. He watches Will run up to the door and that’s when he finally sees her.

God, he misses her so much.

He clutches the wheel, forcing himself to stay put. He should be going in with Will. Hell, they should both be at the Unremarkable House with him. Home. Together.

But they’re not. He lives alone, in a house too big, and she lives here, in a house too far away.

But they don’t because he fucked up five years ago.

“Go inside Will,” he hears her say. “I wanna talk to your dad for a minute.”

Christ, what has he done now? As she approaches, Mulder goes through a list of things he could’ve forgotten to do. He even checks the time again, thinking maybe he’d read it wrong and it was actually half 7 instead. Yet as she gets closer, he notices she isn’t actually mad.

Maybe he had got something right for once.

He exits the car just as she gets there. In flip flops, she is so much smaller than he is. He’d almost forgotten how much so.

Mulder shoves his hands in his pockets to keep them from wrapping around her.

“Hey Scully,” he greets trying to sound casual when inside his heart was doing flips.

“Hey,” she says, sounding just as casual. “Um…William has a parent-teacher conference on Friday,” she tells him.

“Okay…?” Mulder half asks, wondering about its significance. Surely he’s had many of those before.

“Well I usually drop him off at your house at 4. The meeting pushes it back.”

Right, it interferes with her perfectly designed schedule.

“That’s fine,” Mulder says, finding no issue with it. “Friday nights our movie night anyway, doesn’t make a ton of difference to us.”

If Scully feels anything at the mention of ‘movie night’ she doesn’t show it. A long time ago when cases were packed up neatly and they had no other commitments, Friday night belonged to them. Rock, Paper, Scissors played for who chose what they were watching. Mulder was still yet to admit he let her win on purpose.

“That’s nice,” she says. “So you’ll be at the school?”

“At 4?”

“At 3. For the conference.”

It takes him a moment but then he realises what she’s asking.

“Oh, you want me there with you,” he says surprised. She nods. “Sure, yeah, I can be there.”

She smiles and it’s been so long since she’s smiled at anything he’s said that he’ll take it.

“Okay then. Make sure you don’t forget.”

“I won’t.”

They stand there then, albeit in an awkward-ish silence. Mulder wants to reach out to her, ask her to invite him inside, ask her to be a proper family again. Would she want that?

Will calls out from the front door. Mulder retreats, the coward.

“Mom! Can I have ice cream?” He shouts out into the street.

He sees Scully cringe. She won’t yell back, not out here. Maybe if he was in another room or up the stairs, but never in the street.

She turns away from him, no goodbye or anything and walks back over to Will. He doesn’t hear what she says but Will is ushered back inside and the front door slams shut. That’s it. That’s all he sees of her.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

A buzz comes through on his phone.

Mulder ignores it. A news notification or some update surely, nobody ever talks to him.

He ignores it.

It buzzes again.

Strange.

He picks it up.

Scully: We need to talk.

Then the other messages.

Scully: Mulder?

Scully: Hello?

Scully: Mulder, it’s me.

He’s about to type a reply when her name takes up the screen and his phone starts chiming.

“What’s the point of you having a phone if you’re not gonna look at it?”

She sounds pissed. At him?

“Hello to you too, Scully,” he mutters.

“What was that?” Her voice comes through sharp.

“Nothing,” he dismisses. “What’s up? You said you needed to talk to me.”

A long sigh exits Scully before she talks. “William got into a fight at school today.”

Shit. Mulder thinks he knows where this is going.

“Uh-huh.”

“He decided to practice karate on some classmates,” she explains.

“It’s called Kung-Fu,” Mulder hears Will’s voice call through distantly. “And it was only one kid.”

Scully’s voice, dimmed as she moves the phone away to talk to Will. “I don’t care what it’s called. You shouldn’t be fighting.” Then her voice much clearer. “Do you have an explanation for this?”

In another world, another time, he would be asking her that only it would be in regards to mothmen and fluke worms, not 9 year old boys.

“Yeah, last Friday we watched a couple Jackie Chan movies.”

He hears another sigh.

“Sorry,” he adds.

“It’s fine.” She sighs again. It’s so not fine. “Because of it, they’ve moved his conference. You need to be here now.”

Mulder’s head whips side to side, trying to locate some pants. Can’t very well turn up to school in his boxers. “Like, now-now?”

“Like, as soon as possible, yeah. They’re anxious to get started.”

He cradles his phone between his ear and shoulders and starts pulling on the first pair of jeans he can find. “Yeah, just give me half an hour.”

“Half an hour, Mulder, or we start without you.”

Half an hour it is.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

Martial arts training aside, Will was doing pretty well in school though Mulder suspected that had more to do with the half Scully inside him. He was good at all subjects but was specifically excelling in Science even if he did ask some ‘out there’ question. Mulder grins at Scully but she’s staring straight ahead and misses it. Mulder deflates a little.

With the promise of no more fighting they are free to leave. While Scully talks to his teacher some more, Mulder pulls Will aside.

“So?” He asks to Will’s intrigue. “Which kid was it?”

Will grind. “Troy Johnson,” he says.

Mulder cringes. That kid’s been giving Will a hard time since kindergarten. In Mulder’s eyes, he had it coming.

“What he do?” Mulder asks thinking he simply gave Will a Wet Willy or something.

Will’s grin drops, he looks towards Scully before turning back and talking to the floor.

“He called Mom a name,” he says.

Mulder’s insides grow cold. He frowns. “What sort of name?”

Will fidgets. “I dunno what it means but…he called her a milf.” His face contorts in disgust. “I didn’t like it.”

Mulder tries not to laugh. He does not look towards Scully. Instead, he ruffles his son’s hair.

“I tried to tell Mom would she wouldn’t listen.”

“It’s okay, Will. You did good.”

“Did I?” He asks, unsure.

“Sure. Well, maybe keep the physical violence to a minimum but keep up the sentiment.”

Will nods, stands straighter, proud of himself. Then falters, a confused look falling across his face. “What does sentiment mean?”

Before Mulder can answer, Scully walks over to them. She gives Will a reproachable look. “I suppose we should get you to your dad’s,” she says to Will. Then to Mulder, “Do everyone a favour and keep the Kung-Fu movies to a minimum.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answers, giving a mock salute. She glares at him as she passes. An idea strikes him then. “We should go out for food,” he suggests.

Will immediately perks up. “Wendy’s?” He asks.

“No!” Scully immediately shoots down. Then looks at Mulder. “We are not rewarding this.” Will deflates.

“Come on Scully,” Mulder urges. “The kid has learned his lesson.” (Will nods; “I will keep my hands to myself in future,” he says like an oath) “Let’s get some food.”

It doesn’t take much, surprisingly, for Scully to relent.

“Okay, fine. But then I need to go home.”

Mulder smiles. It’s a win he’ll take.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

They end up in Wendy’s.

Mulder gets a burger, fries, and treats himself to a banana milkshakes. Will gets virtually the same only the shake is chocolate. He can see Scully wanting to protest but Will is enjoying himself and that’s what matters overall- Mulder has to remind her.

Scully declines having anything and Mulder surmises she’s on a health kick again. He takes a sneak peak at her body, to make sure her clothes aren’t dangling from her body. They aren’t, he makes sure to take a good long look.

About 15 minutes in, she’s eating his fries anyway.

Mulder leans back, watching, enjoying how normal it all is. How much he wants this to last forever.

“I need to go drain the lizard,” says Will and Mulder barks out a laugh, the moment ruined.

“William!” Scully admonishes, pulling a face.

“What? I need a wee.”

“Just say you’re going to the bathroom. Is this one of your sayings?” She asks Mulder.

Mulder, half laughing-half choking on a fry replies, “No, I would never say something like that.”

She eyes him suspiciously, not believing. Then turns back to Will. “Do you need one of us to come with you?”

Now it’s Will’s turn to pull a face. “No Mom, I’m not a baby.”

Mulder watches Scully watch him go. She has a weird look on her face; like she’s mad at him but also deeply fond of him.

“You ever gonna stop being mad at him?” Mulder asks. He tosses his napkin down, pushes the basket of fries towards Scully who brings them closer to her automatically.

“Eventually.”

“Well I don’t know if this changes your mind at all but I think you should know your son karate-chopped that kid today to defend your honour.”

“Excuse me?”

“Troy Johnson, the little shit, called you a MILF.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. I think Will overheard and punched him.” They see William walking towards them now. “Don’t be so hard on him, okay.”

Scully lets out a small, “Okay.” Then looks towards her phone, grimacing.

“Everything okay?” Mulder asks with concern.

“Yeah,” Scully answers though she sounds distracted. “It’s just time for me to go home.”

“Already?” Will asks sounding disappointed.

“Come on,” says Mulder, a hand on Will’s shoulder. “It’s getting late. Mom’s probably usually in bed by now.” He feels a pinch to his elbow in response.

They climb into the car; Mulder driving, Scully next to him, Will in the back seat. They could almost all be going home together.

“I’ll drop you off, okay?”

“Okay,” Scully answers. She smiles but it doesn’t look as natural as the others have.

They’re pulling into her drive when they hear Will from the back seat. “Damn…” he mutters just loud enough for Mulder to catch it. He waits for a reapproach from Scully but one doesn’t come. “Can I get my DS from the house?” Will asks. That seems to spurn Scully.

“Yes but be quick, your dad wants to get home.”

His dad didn’t want to get home. His dad wanted to stay here, in this moment, pretending this is where they all lived. How normal this day had felt; going to school, going out to dinner, the banter, the easiness. How Will seemed so much happier having both parents together. They forget but this can’t be easy on him.

Scully enjoys his company, he knows she does. She wouldn’t have gone out with them tonight if she didn’t.

“I should go,” she says but Mulder reaches out towards her, his hand falling lightly atop of hers. The first he’s touched her in over 5 years. He’s missed this, missed her so much.

Stay, he wants to say. Come back with us. We can be a proper family again.

“Scully…” he says and she turns ever so slightly and he can see it, how much she wants this too.

He doesn’t know who kisses who first. When their lips touch it’s magical and magnificent at once. Everything he can remember and more. 5 years of memory that never lived up to the real thing, 5 years of wet dreams, waking up soiled and disappointed, ashamed and heart broken all over again, missing her even more than the day before.

His tongue invades her mouth, wrapping his hands around her waist, trying to pull her closer to relieve the ache hardening between his legs but the stupid console is in the way.

Mulder pulls away, fighting for breath, for words. “Invite me in,” he whispers. Into her home, into her heart, he’ll take anything he just wants more.

“I want…” she begins but the front door is open, light from the hallway illuminating them.

They jump away from each other, burned by the light and by the words that fall innocently from William’s mouth.

“Mom! You didn’t tell me Scott was here.”

A coldness runs through Mulder. He looks from Scully (who has some decency to look ashamed at least) to the stranger that stands in her house like he owns it.

Who the fuck is Scott? His brain demands.

...

@today-in-fic

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