Flight into Egypt 7:  Going Home

Author:  Vickie Moseley

Going Home:  Chapter 12 This Diamond Ring

St. Mary's Hospital,

Richmond, VA

June 11, 3:45 pm

Broken ribs, a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, a ten inch gash running down the length of his left calf that required 20 stitches to close and some minor internal bleeding, but all in all, Mulder had escaped the jaws of death and then some.  It came as a surprise to everyone but Scully when the doctor announced his intention to move Mulder out of ICU and into a private room.  Only Scully realized that it wasn't just Mulder's amazing recuperative powers, but the collective noise from the gaggle of people who had invaded the Intensive Care Unit's Family Lounge that was the attending physician's motivation.  Either way, she was eternally grateful. 

Just before lunch, she asked her mother to stay with Mulder while she ran back to DC and grabbed a few things from the condo.  He had been in and out all morning, waking disoriented at first because of the temporary deafness caused by the blast and then falling back to sleep the minute he saw she was with him.  The doctor had finally ordered a stronger sedative and Scully was certain he wouldn't be awake to miss her so she took her leave.  She was back in just under 4 hours.

"You barely had time to get there, sweetheart," Maggie chided as her daughter nudged her out of the chair next to Mulder's bed.

"Didn't need much time.  Just needed to pick up some things."

"Things?" Maggie inquired.

"His toothbrush.  His cordless razor because he hates feeling scruffy in the hospital.  Things," Scully replied, not looking her mother in the face.

"Well, I'm going to check on everyone.  Do you think the children will be able to visit tonight?  They really miss you."

"If Karen doesn't mind dragging them all the way down here, I would love that, Mom.  I miss them so much.  Mulder might be awake enough to see them, too." 

Maggie patted her daughter's arm.  "I'll go call her right now and make the arrangements.  Bill got a couple of rooms at the Comfort Suites just down the road last night, maybe you can stay there with William and the girls tonight."

"We'll see how Mulder's doing," Scully replied.  In her heart she knew he was doing much better and that he'd escaped more serious injury, but she was still loath to let him out of her sight.

Scully had just fallen asleep, or so she thought until she noticed the shadows from the window.  Long fingers were caressing her hand.  She smiled, her eyes still closed, when those fingers lifted her hand to his bruised and swollen lips and placed a tender kiss on her left ring finger.

"Did I miss a memo?" he rasped, his eyes at half-mast staring at her as he always did when he was still groggy from injury and drugs.  He ran his thumb over the diamond ring on her finger.  "This is new.  Who gave it to you?"

She opened her eyes and smiled at his playful expression.  "A guy," she replied haughtily.

"A guy.  A nice guy?  A good-looking guy?  A guy you want to be shackled to for the rest of your life?"

"Well, I don't know about the shackles," she teased in return.

"He probably got that ring from the Republic of Cubic Zirconia," he joked.

"Not from what I could gather," she said, scooting forward so he could see her lips as she spoke.  His hearing was slowly returning, but the doctor had said there would be a ringing in his ears for a few days.  "I found the receipt, it most likely set his bank account back a few months.  He might have even given up some of his more erudite magazine subscriptions to pay for it."

"When did you find this?" he asked, lifting his eyes from her hand to her face.

"The night I came back from the beach," she said.  "I was all set to be angry with you for caving to Bill's demands until I read the date of the receipt and found out that you'd had it for 8 years.  Then I had to rethink a few of our conversations," she said with a raised eye-brow.  "I guess you really were lucid when you told me that you loved me.  I should have remembered that drugs wouldn't have impaired your faculties that much."

"I was too much of a coward to give it to you," he said sadly.  "There were a thousand different times through the years when I would start to get it out, to give it to you and then something would happen and we'd be off again on another case.  I could never find the right time.  And then in Montana -- "

"I didn't want to get married when we were living assumed lives, Mulder," she said softly, hushing him with a finger to his lips.  "And what I said back then, I meant.  I've always felt married to you."

He kissed her fingers and then took hold of them, drawing their entwined hands back to rest on the bed.  "So what changed your mind all of a sudden?  Or do you just want to show the ring off to your brothers?" he asked, a twinkle in his eyes, but a hint of wariness hiding behind it.  The wrong answer would be his undoing, she was certain.

"Fox William Mulder, father of my children, love of my life, my partner in law and in crime, will you marry me?" she asked, keeping her voice as steady as her roiling emotions would allow.

"Before I answer that, I repeat my question," he replied.  "Why now, Scully?"

Her face broke, tears coursing down her cheeks.  He started to comfort her but she pushed him back, away from her gently.  She swallowed hard and finally won her composure.  "When they brought you in, they wouldn't let me see you.  I wanted to go to you, back in the ER, but they stopped me.  I couldn't even say I was your partner, or that I was your doctor.  The nurse asked if I was your wife.  I tried to tell them that you're the father of my children, but it didn't matter to them.  I had no standing in your life, at least in their eyes."

He started to object, but again she stopped him.  "Mulder, I'm not saying I suddenly need this now to prove something to myself or even to my family.  I'm saying that I want the world to know and understand that you are my life, and I'm yours.  I don't ever want to be in a position where a fax from a federal law enforcement agency is the only thing that gets me a seat by your bedside."

He frowned at that and shook his head.  "I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what you're talking about, and I'm not trying to be obstinate.  I just want to make sure we're doing this for the right reasons.  I don't ever want you to think you were forced into getting married."

She snorted a bitter little laugh.  "I think we're pretty far away from the barn for the horse to think it was forced through the door, don't you?" she asked.  Then she grew serious again.  She turned his hand over in hers so that she was stroking his palm.  "Mulder, I almost lost you again yesterday.  And it's happened so many, many times in the past that you'd think it would be old hat.  But it isn't.  It never is.  It almost killed me to go through it again.  But there was another factor this time -- we have a little boy and two little girls who almost lost their daddy and the right to every legal protection they would have if we were married.  That got me thinking about why we hadn't done this before and I came to some conclusions."  She drew in a steadying breath.  He waited patiently.  Finally she continued.

"I'm a coward."  When he started to protest she squeezed his hand and he let her finish.  "No, Mulder, I am.  When things got too hot and heavy with Daniel, it terrified me, and rightly so looking back.  But it started a pattern in my life that has continued right down to our relationship.  With Jack, with Ethan, with every man in between, it wasn't my career I was choosing when I broke things off -- it was my fear that made me run.  And our relationship was so different from the very beginning, I think I fooled myself into believing that I'd react differently.  Of course, that's true to an extent.  I've never wanted to run from you, Mulder.  Well, maybe one weekend in Philly that I still contend was about me and not about you -- but I came back.  And I was so proud of myself that I did come back.  I convinced myself that our relationship was so unique that it transcended all the usual trappings of romance . . . even to being above marriage."

"But you see, it's not, we're not above it.  We're a part of it.  I see Bill and Tara and their kids and Charlie and Karen and the boys and I see how happy they are, how much they love each other -- and I see them proclaim their love to each other every day.  How can I say that they're wrong and we're right?  Maybe we're doing it wrong.  Marriage is a sign not just for the two people involved, but for the world to see.  Not just for us, but for my brothers and mom, our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren -- "

"Scully, not to interrupt, but how long have I been out of it?  Because you're scaring me here," he teased.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.  "I'm not saying this right," she said with a sigh.  "What I'm saying is that I can't articulate all the reasons I want to marry you.  I just want to marry you.  It's not a one time offer, I'm not asking in the heat of the moment, I've had a very long time to think about this.  So, I'll ask again -- will you marry me?"

"Yes.  My answer is yes, today, yesterday, and a million tomorrows down the road.  Yes, I will to marry you," he said, bringing her hand up to his lips again.

She gave him the smile he continually awoke just to see.  He reached his hand up to her cheek and guided her down so he could kiss her freely.  When she finally pulled away he grinned as she rested her forehead against his.  "Any plans on how we break this to the four year old?" she asked teasingly.

"Are you kidding?  I'm more worried about how Bill's going to react," he shot back.  "But if we tell him now, I'm already in the hospital."

She laughed.  "Well, we can't do anything until you are out of this place and back home."

"I don't want to wait till we get back home to Montana.  Hey, since you popped the question, does that mean I get to plan the wedding?"

She gave him a dubious look.

"Nothing involving RFK Stadium, Scully, I promise.  It's just I've thought about it a lot in our time together and I actually think I can do this.  I'll use your mom and Karen and Tara as wedding consultants, nothing will happen that some female doesn't first approve."

"With an offer like that, how can I refuse?" she said, kissing him again and again until he yawned in the middle of a kiss.

"I should let you get back to sleep," she told him, stroking his hair.

"Wait, I still need to find out.  What happened to Banton?"

She shook her head.  "Mulder, let's wait -- "

"Please Scully.  Just tell me what happened to him?"

She pursed her lips, but finally acquiesced.  "The lab was a hot zone, but they were able to get in there with the proper suits.  They found a body, what was left of it at least.  Wright said he was sure it was Banton."

Mulder nodded.  "It was what he'd come to do," he said mournfully.  "He couldn't live with what he'd become, what they'd made him."

"He almost killed you in the process," she replied tersely.

"No, he was saving me at the end.  Scully, you realize he's just one of the people who were captured and experimented on by Cancer man and his cronies.  There are others, and the ones still capable of escaping are out there, roaming the streets, potential time bombs every one."

"Mulder, I thought you said this was the last dance."

He looked startled.  "Scully, I wasn't talking about us or even just me.  I'm going to tell Skinner I'll file any report he thinks the Director might listen to, a report to recommend the re-opening of the X Files office with Agent Wright as the Agent In Charge."

She smiled broadly at him.  "Those are pretty big shoes you're asking him to fill, Mulder."

"Are you saying I have big feet, my love," he shot back and then grinned.  "I think he can handle it.  As long as Skinner starts looking now for a partner for him.  Maybe more than one."

"A whole battalion?" Scully mocked.  "I mean, who could possibly replace us?"

"Laugh it up, former g-woman.  If I'm right, poor Jeremy is going to need all the help he can get.  Speaking of help, am I gonna be out of here in time for Walter and Kim's wedding?" he asked with trepidation.

"We'll see," she said with a Mona Lisa smile.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The

Washington DC

June 25, 2005

1:55 pm

"It's too tight," Skinner complained as he tugged at his collar.

"It's perfect," Mulder assured him.  "You're talking, you can breathe, it's straight, don't mess with it."

"I thought you were supposed to be my best man, not my mother," Walter groused, but emotion behind the words was light hearted.

"If I were your mother, you'd be in deep shit," Mulder returned.  "Now, can you do my tie, Walt."

With one arm in a sling and still using a cane, Mulder was pretty incapacitated in getting the final touches to his attire.  When Walter quickly did the ascot at his neck, he patted him on both shoulders, causing a slight wince from the former agent.  "Take a look, how'd I do?"

Both men stood in front of the mirror and surveyed their appearance.  Skinner, in a grey morning tux with tails, looked years younger than his usual dour self.  If anything, he looked like a nervous young groom.  Mulder, in a black tux with tails, made a striking counterpoint and smiled at his older friend.  "Relax, Walt.  You're only getting married."

"You just wait," Skinner growled.  "You'll see."  He tugged lightly at his collar again.  "I thought these things were looser."   As if suddenly remembering something vital, he shot Mulder a panicked look.  "You have the ring, right?"

Mulder smiled and produced Kim's wedding ring, fitted neatly on his pinky finger, just past the first knuckle.

"If that finger swells in this heat, I'm sawing it off to get to the ring," Skinner charged.

"I hope I'm not this snippy at my wedding," Mulder muttered as he looked at his watch.

"What was that?" Skinner growled.

"Show time!" Mulder announced, waving to his friend as he limped out the door that led to the altar.

The church was enormous and Mulder looked around slightly awed.  The stained glass windows softened the glaring sunlight and created a cascade of hues down the aisle.  He smiled as he saw Scully coming toward him, a pale salmon tea length gown, gathered at the waist, off the shoulders.  Following her down the aisle came Kim in a radiant white wedding gown, but Mulder only had eyes for his partner.  Partner, lover, next of kin and very soon to be wife.

The wedding passed in a blur.  Mulder was happiest to see how at ease his good friend Walter was after the ceremony.  Kim smiled and seemed to glow with an inner beauty as she stood beside her best friend and now husband, cutting the cake.  The reception was a formal affair at the Washington Hilton, the cake alone, complete with a working fountain and garlands of fresh flowers, easily cost a week's salary at even the Assistant Director's level.  Mulder had mentioned how impressed he was by the show, but Walter confided to his friend that he'd been putting money away for something for a long time -- now he had something and someone to spend it on.

The bride and groom left for the honeymoon suite just before 11 and soon after, Mulder escorted Scully back to the condo, where they had the place to themselves, the children spending the night at Maggie's.

"That was a beautiful wedding," Scully said with a sigh as Mulder puttered around in the bathroom.

"What?  I have the water running," he called out to her.

"I said, that was a beautiful wedding," she said, going to the door to see what he was doing.  She smiled as she saw his endeavors.  The bathtub was almost filled with warm water and bubbles; candles were strategically placed around the room on every flat surface.  "My, my, my.  To what to I owe this pleasure?"

"We are sans small children, you were so absolutely gorgeous today I thought I'd have to run down to the Y and take a cold shower halfway through the ceremony . . . and I don't really think I need a reason," he ticked off on his fingers.

She grinned at him and stripped off the last of her clothing, he joined her and they both slid into the soapy, fragrant water.

"You're going to smell like vanilla all day tomorrow," she warned.

"I've smelled like worse," he countered and proceeded to wash her back in slow, lazy strokes.  "So, you really liked the wedding?" he asked, just a slight hesitancy in his voice.

"Didn't you?" she returned.

"Oh, it was fine.  It was great.  It was -- "

"Not us," she supplied and he kissed her shoulder in reply.

"Not that we couldn't do that, mind you," he said quietly, now paying attention to her shoulders and arms.

"Mulder, that wedding took months to plan.  Kim told me they lucked out on the church because another couple eloped.  They had planned on getting married at a church near Tinley Circle, but opted for St. Patrick's when it was available.  Even so, they've had the Hilton booked since last October."

"So you're saying you doubt my ability to pull off a big church wedding with a sit down reception?  That sounds like a challenge to me," Mulder said quietly.

Scully turned in his arms and put her hands on either side of his face.  "Hey, I said it was a beautiful wedding.  Not that I wanted one just like it.  You promised you were planning this wedding and I want to see what you come up with.  No cheating by copying off the Skinners.  Hear me?"

He smiled at her, kissing soap bubbles off her nose.  "You're sexy when you boss me around."

"Oh yeah?" she growled, she straddled him.  "I'll show you 'bossy'.  Come here, you love slave!"

"Be gentle now, I've been recently injured," he said between kisses.  It was the last comment either of them made for a long time.

to be concluded in Chapter 13

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