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Title: Trouver L'Amour un Jour de Fete: Paques Summary: A couple of surprising announcements on Easter Author's note: Heh, heh...oops. Paques is about the equivalent of um...Easter? it's late, that's for sure but I didn't have much time before this so here it is. Better late than never huh? Enjoy.... "Hi, Mom? It's Dana." "Hi dear, anything wrong?" Maggie Scully was now conditioned to expect the worst when her daughter called. Somehow, she had learned to sound nonchalant but the roses she had clipped from the backyard had fell from her hand. "Mom! Since when are you a pessimist?" "What am I to expect?" Maggie gathered up the roses, assured that there was no crises, "The only reason you've been calling in the past four years is when something has gone terribly wrong." "Well, I have good news this time." "Oh, really? What is it Dana?" Putting the freshly cut roses onto the table, she realized that she needed baby's breath so taking the cordless phone with her, she stepped outside onto the back porch and clipped some of the baby's breath from the yard and walked back into the house, and placed the baby's breath on the table next to the roses. "Um...this might be somewhat of a surprise..." "Dana, I'm your mother, after raising four children, there are no such things as surprises." Maggie got out a ceramic vase from the cupboard. "I suppose not." "What is it Dana?" Maggie studied the vase critically, trying to determine how she should place the roses. She picked up a fern. "I'm getting married...To Mulder." "You're WHAT?" The fern dropped. "Married. Tying the knot. To Mulder. My partner." "You are?" Maggie's smile was spreading into a grin. "Yeah. I'm so happy!" "Oh, my God, Dana, when did this happen?" the elderly Scully sat down on the kitchen stool. "A week ago." "And you only tell me now?" Maggie twirled a rose between her fingers, planning the wedding reception. "Well, you're the first to know." "Thank goodness for that. So when are you planning to get married?" "We're not sure yet but during the summer...what, Mulder?" Dana's voice was suddenly directed to the person in her apartment and Maggie heard a distinct giggle...and what was that 'pfuff' sound? Probably a pillow that had just met up with Fox's head. Dana's voice was full of laughter now, "...no, Vegas is not a good idea. No, are you crazy...?no don't answer that, I know already." "Dana are you still there?" Maggie asked. Strolling airily towards the table with the roses again and started to place the roses in systematically. "...Mulder..." The voice was muffled, presumably by her daughter's hand, so only a couple of words came through, "...mom...phone...stop...my mother....Mulder..." followed by giggling. Maggie chuckled and decided to cut the conversation short, "Dana, well, I'll see you tomorrow, it's Easter...you remember right? we're all going over to your brother's place...you...um...can announce the engagement there..." Maggie's voice trailed off, there was an almost distinct change in her daughter's breath. "...Sure, mom, bye!" Then Maggie heard the dial tone. She smiled to herself, now here was something to do...she had to plan the wedding. "Yay! Aunt Dana's coming over! Aunt Dana's coming over!" Fair headed Andrea pranced around the living room clapping her hands. Topher, playing his Game Boy, tried to block the infernal voice of his baby sister out by turning the volume to max and plugging in the earphones. But he couldn't. "Shut up you annoying brat!" Topher yelled out. "I'm not a brat!" Andrea shouted back, indignant. "Yes you are!" "I am not!" "Shut up!" "Mommy!" Andrea bawled. "Christopher! What are you doing to your sister?" Karen shouted reprovingly from the bedroom. "Nothing mom! The brat is bothering me!" "Topher, do not call your sister a brat!" "Why not? She is one!" "Topher, can I talk to you for a minute?" Karen demanded, not giving her son much of a choice. "Ha, ha, you're in trouble!" Andrea gloated. "Shut up, Brat!" Topher stomped off, in a huff and slammed the door "Mommy, Topher called me a brat again!" "I know, Andi, now quietly play while I talk to your brother..." Karen was cut off by a door bell, "Andi, would you be a darling and get the door?" "OK, Mommy..." "But be sure to ask who it is first and look out the window..." Karen was interrupted yet again by the sound of an opening door without the preliminaries she had taught her daughter. She sighed and walked quickly to the door; it probably Helen and Dave with Jessie and Emily. To her surprise, it was Dana and Fox. "Hi, Dana, Hi Mulder, I thought you were coming later for dinner." Karen said while giving each one a quick hug. "We were, but we have to leave for New Hampshire in a couple of hours." Fox answered. "Oh, that's a pity. Andrea was looking forward to you eating her new salad that she made by herself." Karen smiled, patting her daughter on the head. "Mom! Is it Aunt Helen with the other two brats?" Topher shouted from the bedroom. "Topher! I don't know what's wrong with you today! Come out and greet Mulder and your Aunt Dana." "Why?" "Because, *Christopher*, it's polite." Karen looked agitated but kept cool at her son's obnoxious behavior. "Yeah, Topher, it's polite..." Andi's childish voice repeated. "Andrea Elisabeth..." "Sorry, Mommy." She apologized with a pout that could match Mulder's. "Fine..." Topher came stomping into the front hall and with a grotesque imitation of a smile said, "Hello, Mulder, Hello Aunt Dana, How are you feeling today? I hope you are well. Isn't the weather nice? Well, I must be going. Mother was supposed to have a talk with me in her room and I was supposed to stay there. Mother dear, are we going to have that talk soon, I am ever so excited." With that, Topher grimaced and started to stomp back to the room. "Young man, you have just forfeited your allowance for the next two weeks." Karen called behind him. "Mom!" Topher shouted. "Topher, please go to your room..." "Why?" "Just go there until I call you." "When's that going to be?" "Are you going for four weeks no allowance?" "Fine!" Topher yelled, stomped away and a two seconds later, they all heard the door slam. "Tell me, Mulder, since Dana told me you studied psychology, that this is a phase he'll be out of soon." "How old is he?" "Almost 11." "I give him seven to ten more years." Karen gave a look of mock agitation then laughed, "Dana, stop looking so skeptical on how kids can torture a mother..." "Yeah, Dana, in two years or so, we'll have a kid." Mulder smiled. "Maybe sooner than you think." Dana answered cryptically but before anyone could register her comment, Andrea piped up again. "Aunt Dana, come see the dollhouse that Daddy built for me. It's got a blue roof, pink walls and a room for all my dolls. It also got a bathroom and living room and kitchen and there are mirrors and small newspapers and everything!" Andrea enthusiastically dragged Dana into the living room to see the dollhouse and after both disappeared from sight Karen and Fox suddenly remembered Dana's comment. "Fox," She addressed him, forgetting to use his last name, "Did Dana just say that she might be having a child 'sooner than you think'?" Their eyes met and they were about to run and find out exactly what she meant but decided against it. Karen spoke again, "Look Fox, why don't you find out from her later..." "Karen, you're her sister in law..." "It's your baby...if she's going to have a kid." "Yeah, but..." "Shhh...here she comes." Karen smiled cheerfully but Dana had seen how they were whispering before that. "Okay, what's the big secret?" Dana asked, "Is it a conspiracy?" "You know, Dana, I've always thought you'd make a great mother..." Karen started out...but then shut up. "Yes, Karen, you thought that I would make a great mother...what?" "Scully, what was the dollhouse like?" Fox tried to change the subject and Dana knew it but decided to leave it. "It was cute, it had everything in miniature...it was adorable. It even had little cereal boxes and a miniature puppy doll with a water dish. Andrea really loves that little dollhouse. She's made up all sorts of stories to go along with it and she's named every doll." "I know, she can spend hours playing with it. I'm so glad that Bill made it for her, she's got such an imagination..." Karen was interrupted by the doorbell, this time it really was Helen and Dave with Jessie and Emily. She answered the door, "Hi Helen, Hi Dave..." "Hi!" Jessie and Emily smiled. As sisters, they couldn't look more different. Jessie had long, nearly black hair with chocolate colored eyes and with a short stature while Emily had short strawberry blond hair, gray-blue eyes and stood at an impressive height of 5 foot 1 inches at the age of 9. Dana always smiled when she thought of how different they looked but were so similar in tastes. Before she could speak up, Jessie and Emily, simultaneously asked where Andrea was. They had brought something for Andrea's doll house, a miniature mirror, and wanted to give it to her. Karen gestured for the girls to go into the living room and play while she invited the adults into the kitchen for coffee. After a flurry of hellos and hugs, everyone settled down at the counter. It was an awkward silence at first but then Helen asked, "You know Dana, I never really understood what kind of work you two do. You never really want to talk about it." Fox chuckled silently while Dana started to explain. "I never ever complain about Mulder to you? Helen, we have to get together more!" She joked but then she became serious, her FBI agent exterior came over her, "we work, as you know, in a department called the X-files. It's not mainstream FBI business at all. It investigates paranormal phenomena of all sorts..." "Toilet inhabiting mutants, liver eating mutants, shape changing mutants..." Mulder droned but Dana ignored him. "...like UFOs and the suchlike. Mulder works there because of...personal experiences," she said after pausing. If Mulder wanted to elaborate, he could if he wanted to. She went on, "and I was assigned to him to anchor him to Earth." "What?" "She was," he spoke up before she could open her mouth, "sent to try to debunk my work." "Thank you Mulder. Isn't he great? So concise, so honest...so blunt." "That's why you love me so much, Dana." "No, darling Fox, I love you for your mutants. Don't you realize how charismatic guys are when they're constantly chased by or chasing mutants?" " I'm not the only one that gets chased. Exactly how many attacks have you had in your bathroom alone?" "Dana, you never told me that you get attacked. I always thought you had a desk job!" Karen exclaimed. "A desk job? I didn't even have a desk until half a year ago." "OK..." Karen shrugged, "Don't you guys ever meet up with anything but mutants?" "We get an occasional alien." Fox grinned, "Then we have prophets, killer green bugs, and mosquito bites...isn't that right, Dana?" "Won't you ever forget that?" Dana tried to match his pout but didn't succeed. OK, so it wasn't quite fair, after all, he didn't tease her a lot about that. Even though... "No." Was his simple answer. "What do mosquito bites have anything to do with the x-files?" Dave spoke up for the first time. "In the first case we worked together, we were sent to investigate a town with people from a particular graduating class was disappearing. On each of them, there were small bumps that sort of resembled mosquito bites." Dana explained leaving out everything but the bare facts. "So, this case would sum up how you met?" Helen asked, always curious to know exactly how they met. Dana never said much and all they knew about her, her work and her lover was that she worked at the FBI and her lover was her partner, Fox Mulder. "Yeah, basically. The day before, I tried to scare her off by acting all weird but she just ignored it." "He had this face on and asked me in the most impetuous way if I believed in the existence of extraterrestrials. Then on the way to the town, he stopped in the middle of the road for no apparent reason and spray painted a big orange X on it." "The radio was on the fritz." Fox offered by way of excuse. "I'm sure it was. Then he decided, later that night, to run out of the car and scream something about 'nine minutes'." "Hey, Scully, we happened to have lost nine minutes three times or so in the past four, five years." Still ignoring his comments, she continued, "And then we talk about nasal implants." "That little metal thing was stuck in his nasal cavity. That's not something you see everyday...and you didn't tell them about how you dropped your robe with only your underwear during a blackout in the middle of a thunderstorm and had me examine your lower back." He smiled, mock smugness in his boyish grin. "She did?" Helen and Karen looked at him incredulously. "Dana! Gee, I always thought you were conservative...and there you go, dropping your robe everywhere...I remember this one time when you were in college..." "Please Helen, do not get into that and yes, I did drop my robe in his room but it was innocent. I thought I might have the marks on my back as the other...um...abductees." "Scully, y'know, now that I think of the entire situation, you could've realized that only the people of the graduating class had those marks. I think we'd established that already by that time. But that's fine that you did. It was rather nice having my gorgeous new partner strip immediately within two days of knowing each other." "That's right. I planned it that way. I even picked out matching underwear just for you. And I planned the entire blackout too. And you know what else? I even baited the mosquitoes to bite me there!" She said sarcastically. "Isn't she so thoughtful? I must be the luckiest guy alive." "And I the luckiest girl...to be married to a guy who has the hospital as a second home...." "What?!" Karen shrieked. "Married?!" "You're going to be married?!!" "Oh, my god when?" "Where?" "Is it going to be fancy?" "Dana! You never told us!" "Well, there goes the surprise." Mulder chuckled, "But Dana, we have start to leave for the airport if we're going to be able to make the plane." "Mulder's right. We've gotta leave. Are Andrea, Emily and Jessie in the living room? I want to say good-bye to them." "Mm-hmm." Karen nodded affirmatively and Dana walked out of the kitchen. She wandered into the hall and walked slowly, observing the pictures of Andrea and Topher on the wall. There was a picture of Andrea when she was three. Her white blond hair was mussed and Andrea was banging on the side of her crib as if saying 'let me out!'. There was a picture of Topher next to it . Topher looked around five and in this picture, he was playing out in the snow. With a perplexed expression, he held a snowball in his gloved hand, not knowing what to do with it. Then there were more individual pictures taken in photo studio. Topher and Andrea were cuddled up in two of them and looked very happy. Dana could really make out the resemblance. Both of them had wide eyes with extremely long eyelashes, their hair was the same shade of light blond that both turned a dark blond now, and both had a single dimple in their right cheek. Dana was just about to enter the living room when she overheard a conversation the girls were having. She crept closer to the entrance of the room to eavesdrop: "...when I grow up, I'm going to have twin girls and their names are going to be Pamela and Camilla." Emily was saying. "I'm going to have two girls and a boy. The girls are going to be named Francie and Mary and the boy is going to be Johnny." Jessie's whispery voice betrayed her identity to Dana. "I'm going to have four girls!" Andrea proudly announced, "I don't like boys. And they're going to be named Katherine, Florry, Lizzie and Evy." "Those are pretty names..." Jessie commented and Emily quickly agreed. "Those are very pretty names." Dana came into the room. "Hi Aunt Dana...are you going to have a baby soon?" Andrea asked. "Maybe." She smiled, "Why do you ask?" " 'cause I want to know what you're going to name it." "Well, what should I name it?" Dana asked indulgently. "Diana." Andrea answered promptly. "What if it's a boy?" "I don't want you to have a boy." "That can't be helped, Andi." "Well, why don't you name it after Fox?" "I could..." Dana started but she heard a knocking behind her. It was Fox and he was beckoning her to leave. She nodded but turned back to the girls, "I have to go now...I'll see you soon, OK?" "Sure, Aunt Dana..." The three girls hugged her and she left, noticing how they immediately resumed playing. "Fox?" Dana shifted uncomfortably in her airplane seat. "Yeah?" He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Do you want any children?" She questioned, looking him in the eye. "Yeah, I guess I do...but," and he had to get something in, "I'd probably mess them up so much that I'll be getting huge bills for therapy sessions." "I don't think you will." She whispered and looked out the window. It was quiet for a couple of seconds and then both turned back to face each other. "Dana...um...Karen and I were talking earlier today and we were wondering if..." "...if I'm pregnant?" She finished his sentence. "Yeah, that's it...are you?" "I think I am." The End: Trouver L'Amour un Jour de Fete: Paques I love comments so please send them or else I'll...I'll...I don't know what I'll do but...oh never mind. Please reply! :) Itty bitty challenge: From which book did I get the names that Jessie, Emily and Andrea wanted to name their kids? Well, I'm going away for three weeks and won't be back until the end of July so until then...happy fourth of July and don't get sunburned! If you don't celebrate fourth of July, have a nice July. If you live in New Zealand or Australia, hope it's not too cold! See ya all 'round! "True I talk of dreams Which are the children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy and as thin of substance as the air..." ---Mercutio "Romeo and Juliet" END
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