Like a Valentine

Part Fourteen

Christmas ran pretty smooth despite all the hustle and bustle of going to and fro Scully's mothers and their house. Turns out it was a white one too. Snow coated the sidewalk and streets just enough to hinder all that morning travel. The temperature, however, sat just above freezing- thankfully.

Maggie had noticed the ring the second her daughter walked through the door. She didn't yet say anything, but the look on her face said it all.

"Yes, mom."
"I knew it!"
Maggie grabbed for her daughters hand to get a better look.
"Oh, Fox, you really picked out the best of the best."
"Shh, we haven't told Emily yet."
Though Emily assisted Mulder in buying the ring and knew that Mulder would be marrying her mother, she hadn't quite put it all together yet that the ring is on her mother's finger because he'd already asked.
"We're going to tell her tonight."
"I see. Well, I'm happy for you two!"
Maggie took turns hugging them both until Emily zoomed by with a trash bag in her hands. That kid really is a sponge. She knows that to open gifts you've got to be prepared to clean up too - not the worst thing for her to put together. At all.

That night Mulder, Scully, and Emily returned to their home with bags and bags full of gifts. Emily insisted they both play with her since she'd gotten three new dolls for her dollhouse. Not to mention the new additions to said dollhouse: a new barn with a horse, a few new pieces of furniture, and a little red Corvette that she insists only her girl doll can drive- certainly not Mulder's or Mommy's.

"Emily, sweetheart. Mulder and I want to talk to you."
Scully placed her doll in its designated bed in the dollhouse and Mulder oddly laid his next to the horse...
"What?"
The child's trying to get her doll to fit in the Corvette.
"Emily, can you please put the doll down. I promise we can play again later."
She does so, but not without a little pout.
"Bug, I promise we'll play again."
Mulder adds, which Emily rewards him with a small smile as she complies.
"Okay. Emily, you know how you and I went shopping for that ring that I was planning to give your mommy?"
"Yeah. To marry her."
"Yes, to marry her. Well..."
Scully holds up her left hand towards her daughter.
"She's wearing it."
She sounds a little confused, but then it clicks.
"YOU ASKED MOMMY TO MARRY YOU?"
Both Mulder and Scully laugh while Emily jumps up to her feet.
"Yes, baby. He asked me and I said yes."
"So you're going to be my dad?"
HERE WE GO AGAIN.
Mulder looks to Scully VERY unsure of how to approach this. He'd already told Scully he'd love nothing more than to raise Emily with her.
"Yes. Mulder will become your new dad."
Scully jumps the gun, taking the words right out of his mouth because she knew he was asking her for permission to say so.
Emily jumps right into Mulder's lap and wraps her little arms around his neck.
"I always wanted you to be my dad."
"---and I always hoped you say that."
Mulder closes his arms around her, looking to Scully who is already in tears.
"I have a real family now."
Emily speaks into the side of his neck. So innocent, so pure. It makes Mulder tear up too.
"This is the best Christmas ever."

Both Mulder and Scully put Emily to bed that night. They read the book about sharks and took turns kissing her little forehead before returning to their bedroom.

"Scully, I want to adopt her."
He jumps right in. Giving no second to even sit down on the bed. Mulder knows what he wants, and he's mostly got it.
"Mulder, that's a huge step."
"No, that to me is the right step. I want to be sure that she'll always be taken care of. If something were to happen to me... or you."
Scully gives up on starting her nightly routine in the bathroom and turns towards him. She wraps her arms around his neck, smiling up at those beautiful hazel hues.
"You know this doesn't just happen overnight, right? It's a process that can take up to a year...If we're lucky, six months. We'd have to be married first to go through stepparenting adoption. I'm pretty sure we have to have been living together for a year too."
"So I can't adopt her for a year?"
"Well, maybe less. I don't know. We can talk to a lawyer about all of this. I just don't want you to..."
"Get too excited?"
"No. I'm happy... very happy that you're excited. I just don't want you to think that this is something we can just go down to the courthouse and do in one day."
"Scully, I didn't think that...okay I might have thought that..."
Scully laughs as she presses her lips to his.
"You're too much, you know that?"
"I do know that."
"Take me to bed, Fiance."
"Oh, I do like that way that sounds."