Chapter Text
Melissa reaches out to Scully from beyond the grave - if anyone could do that, it would be Missy. Heck, she’d tried on more than one occasion to reach out to the other side while she was still alive. The irony of Scully occasionally being referred to as ‘Mrs Spooky’ was not lost on her, when in fact, her sister would have fit that persona much more than she does.
Missy wanted Scully to go to that house, to see that little girl. The similarities between Emily and Missy were far too eerie to ignore. Flicking through old family albums at Bill’s house only convinced her further. She looked just like her sister did at that age.
She felt almost a magnetic pull towards the young child, couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was so distracted through dinner with her family with thoughts of Emily, and her partner, Mulder circling through her brain. She’d tried to call him, she needed to hear his voice. Maybe he could give her the insight she so desperately wanted. But then he’d answered, sounding rushed, and slightly breathless, and she couldn’t say anything, suddenly not knowing what to say.
Scully had been excited to become an aunt, and she was thrilled for her brother, and Tara, but hearing the happiness and delight in her family’s voices was a bitter reminder that she could never have what they did. She wouldn’t ever get to know what it was like to expect a baby. She wouldn’t know what it was like to spend eight or nine months thinking about a life growing inside of her, falling in love more and more without having seen its face, and without knowing anything about it. She’d never experience what it was like to feel a baby moving inside of her, from the first flutters to the alien like movements of her belly as fists, elbows, or feet stretched and flexed, running short on room. She wouldn’t even experience morning sickness, or labour. Small mercies perhaps, but everyone always said it was worth it. She wouldn’t get to plan to welcome a new life, planning a nursery, stocking chest of drawers full of onesies, and adorably tiny clothes. There’d never be teeny tiny socks to get lost in her washing machine or dryer. There’d never be tiny newborn cuddles, soft downy hair, silky smooth baby soft skin, milky throw up or sleepless nights. She’ll never get to watch a part of herself live outside of her body, exploring the world, stretching their wings, and one day running off without her.
Her life would just always be less, just a prelude as Tara put it. Scully knows she didn’t mean anything by it, but that hurt. She’d never longed for children, for creating her own family, but it was sort of a given. She just assumed that one day, it would happen. But it won’t. And it’s only after hearing that news, seeing the happiness and excitement of those around her that makes her realise just how much she did want that.
Sleeping in Bill’s guest room that is being transformed into a nursery doesn’t help these feelings. She’d tossed and turned for hours, not long having fallen asleep when she’s woken by another call from Missy.
She would never normally knock on someone’s door just before 3am, but it’s been a hell of a day, and the lights are still on. If it’s strange to knock on someone’s door at that time of night, it might be even stranger still to be interrupting a meeting. Something doesn’t feel right.
Finding out that Emily was adopted really kicked up the swirling dust storm of thoughts in her head. Could it really be that her sister had had a baby and not told anyone about it? Had she been a surrogate? An egg donor? Something had to explain this, surely. Why else would Melissa be reaching out across the great divide?
As Scully compared the PCR results for Emily and Melissa, she was struck by an overwhelming wave of emotions. She wasn’t driving herself crazy, there was a reason for the similarities. These results showed a close familial genetic match, and given the context clues Scully had, she knew that had to mean that Emily was Melissa’s daughter. There was a 60% chance that Melissa was Emily’s mother. Emily was a Scully, a member of her family. Melissa wasn’t around, and couldn’t step in, but she was still watching out for her daughter, and she wanted her sister to be there for her, to help protect her. It made sense to Scully, and the hypothesis was both logical and easy to believe. She’d run additional tests, but Scully didn’t need to wait for the results of those tests before she knew what she had to do.
Her mom didn’t understand. She couldn’t. She thought Scully was acting out of grief, feeling a connection to her sister, and reading too much into things, that she couldn’t see the wood for the trees.
Scully’s concern for Emily grows as the San Diego Police detective relays details of mysterious bank deposits. That then leads them to Prangen Pharmaceuticals where she learns more about Emily’s medical history and the trials she was part of. The payments, the doctor’s story, and the injections having been prescribed for Roberta’s husband only depended her concerns and suspicions.
With great concern Scully found herself stepping deeper into the Sim’s family home, where she lays eyes on Emily standing on the stairs. She really did look like Melissa. The poor thing looks to be frozen halfway up the stairs, likely curious as to all the noise and chatter happening downstairs.
“Hi Emily,” Scully approaches her slowly with a friendly smile, and she crouches on the stairs in front of Emily. “My name’s Dana.” Emily regards her with big wide blue eyes, full of curiosity and unease. “It’s getting a bit noisy in here, huh?” Emily nods. “Will you show me to your room? We’ll gather some of your things, and then take you somewhere safe, quieter.”
Emily considers this for a moment, then nods, just as the raised voices reach a crescendo and she flinches.
“Daddy’s really mad.” She states with a worried expression on her face.
“Yeah, I think he is.” Scully agrees.
“Mommy’s gone. She didn’t come back.”
“I know.” Scully says sadly, tenderly smoothing her hand over Emily’s hair.
Emily sighs, glances up the stairs, then back to Scully. “This way.” She points up the stairs.
“Okay, let’s go. Will you show me the way?” Scully stands, and holds her hand out to the young girl who cautiously slips her hands into Scully’s then moves up the stairs. Scully’s relieved to move Emily away from the commotion of Mr Sim’s arrest, and hopes that gathering a few things together for Emily will help distract the girl and also buy them sometime for the police to take Mr Sim away, to hopefully ease the transition for Emily.
“My room.” Emily says as they enter her room, and Scully survey’s the room, smiling. While she’s had her concerns and her questions, particularly regarding Emily’s adoptive father, it’s clear that Emily was loved and provided for.
“Okay, will you gather your favourite toys and books? I’ll see if I can find a bag, and then you can show me some of your favourite clothes okay?”
Scully watches Emily clamber up onto the bed, crawling towards the head where several cuddly toys are pressed between the wall and her pillow. With Emily focused on finding her favourite toys, Scully turns to her wardrobe, hoping to find some kind of backpack or small suitcase perhaps to pack up a few things.
Scully finds a backpack, which she opens up and places on the bed, which Emily then sets her two favourite toys by with a cautious tentative smile.
“These are your favourites?” Scully asks, picking up each toy, giving each a playful look. One is a doll with a soft body, arms and legs, and the other is a stuffed whale. “I like whales too.” Scully grins as she places the toys back down.
“Alright sweet pea, can you show me some of your favourite clothes?”
Emily moves towards her closet, glancing up at all the clothes then looks back up at Scully.
“Go ahead. Choose something comfy maybe, or perhaps in your favourite colours, or a pretty pattern. What do you like to wear?” Scully asks her gently.
“This one,” Emily gestures towards a green sweater, then a purple one, and then rifles through a few more and giggles. “Tigger!”
“You like Tigger huh?” Scully asks, basking in that sweet little giggle.
“Yep!” Emily exclaims. “Tigger’s don’t jump, they bounce!” She exclaims, bouncing on the spot.
“Oh, well in that case, I think your Tigger shirt is a must. Anything else?”
Together they flick through a few items in Emily’s closet, Scully makes a suggestion which Emily turns down for being too scratchy, so Emily makes another choice herself after some encouragement. Scully sends her off to find a book or two, while checking through the chest of drawers for essentials like socks and underwear.
With a bag packed with some key items, Scully leads Emily out of the house and towards the social worker’s waiting car.
Scully helps Emily up into the car seat, and as she buckles her in, she notices that her necklace has caught Emily’s attention. She runs her hand over Emily’s hair, as Emily reaches out to feel the necklace. Scully’s own blue eyes watch her for a moment as she decides to give it to the girl. Emily grasps the crucifix pendant in her little fingers, smiling proudly now that it’s around her neck. It’s shiny, and pretty, and grown up.
As Emily plays with the necklace, keeping her little hands busy, Scully promises to see her soon, and then steps back, and watches as the social worker drives off.
Scully feels an emptiness as the car drives off, and a resolution of what she knows she must do now.
Scully tries to join in with some of the festivities with her family, but she can’t help the fact that her head is pulling her in other directions. Bill pulls her off to the side, having noticed that she was a million miles away. He thought the case was over, or her involvement with it at least. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t believe that Melissa would have had a secret baby and called her from beyond the grave to tell her that. He tells her that’s the kind of antics he’d expect from her partner, but not her. Scully stresses that it doesn’t matter where the call is from, but that there’s a little girl that needs her help. Bill thinks it’s not about anyone else, but it’s about Dana. An emptiness, or void, or loneliness she’s trying to fill. And perhaps there is some truth in that, an undercurrent of sorts, but Scully knows it’s much more than that.
After returning from the jail where they’d found Marshall Sim dead, Scully finally returns home. She should go inside, make peace with her brother, and enjoy spending time with her mom and her sister-in-law, but she’s not quite ready for that yet.
First, she needs to speak with her best friend, if that’s what they are. Things are changing, they’re undefined, they haven’t really discussed what they are or aren’t, but ever since her battle with cancer and miraculous recovery there’s been an undeniable shift. She needs to hear his soothing voice, to see if he understands, or thinks she’s acting rashly or foolishly. She just needs him.
“Mulder.” Scully hears his familiar response as he picks up the call, and she finds it comforting, reassuring.
“Mulder, it’s me.” She says quietly after a deep sigh.
“Scully? Is everything okay?” He asks quickly.
“Yes.” She answers, but there’s something in her voice that casts doubt on the truth of her words.
“Scully…”
“I’m not hurt.” She reassures him, and hears him exhale. “I found…I have a niece.” She explains.
“Bill and Tara - they had the baby?” He asks, knowing her reason for spending Christmas in San Diego this year.
“No, no. This is going to sound crazy.” Scully tries.
“C’mon Scully, after everything we’ve seen, what’s a little crazy.”
“I found Melissa’s daughter?”
“Melissa? Your sister, Missy? You never said she had kids. I don’t think she did either.” He remembers some of their discussions as they waited for Scully to wake up when she was returned to them after her abduction. Surely he’d remember if she’d have mentioned having kids.
“I didn’t know.” Scully sighs.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“How? You’re sure?”
“I’ve had a couple of phone calls - Missy was calling me, telling me to go to her, that she needed my help. We traced the call to the Sim house. There’d been an assumed suicide, but it’s most probably a murder. A little girl’s mom - well adoptive mom. Emily, the girl, she’s just turned three, and Mulder she looks so much like Melissa. I ran a PCR test. It’s 60% likely that she’s Missy’s daughter. At the very least a close relation. It’s the only answer really. I’m running a more accurate test, but I know, Mulder, I know. She’s family.”
“And here I was thinking you were going to take some time off and rest, and you find yourself a case.”
“Yeah.” She breathes. “Mulder, the adoptive dad, he was arrested, and we just found him dead in his cell. Emily, she’s with social services now.”
“Scully…”
“She’s all alone now. She shouldn’t be. She should be with family.”
“Scully…”
“I think I want to adopt her.” She reveals, admitting out loud to someone she cares about what she’s been considering for a while now. She’d considered trying to foster her at least, but now Marshall is out of the picture…
“You think or you want to?” He asks carefully. This is a big commitment, and he’d hate for her to just be doing the ‘right thing’ because she thinks she should.
“I want to.” She confirms. “I want to adopt her.”
“Okay.” She hears him say, and waits a moment for a barrage of questions or sighs, or huffs, or jokes, but they never come. Just some rustling at the other end of the phone.
“Mulder?”
“Yeah, Scully?”
“You’re not going to try and talk me out of this?”
“Why would I do that?” He asks, his tone soft and tender.
“Because….”
“Are there reasons you think you shouldn’t?”
“Our work…”
“Work can be changed, Scully.” He reminds her. A job isn’t for life, but a kid is.
“I don’t want to lose our partnership.”
“Haha, Scully, you’re not going to get rid of me easily. Not anytime soon.”
“My brother is going to think I’m nuts. I think he already might.”
“Hah! Your brother is…”
“Mulder.” She warns.
“Don’t worry about what your brother thinks, Scully.”
“What do you think?” She asks him tentatively.
“You don’t need to worry about what I think, either.”
“Mulder, your thoughts are important to me.”
“Fine.” He inhales deeply, and she can hear his sigh rattling through the phone lines stretching across the country. “If this is what you want, if you already feel a connection, which I think you’re trying to tell me you do, and you think you can commit to this little girl, that you can love her.”
“I can. I do.”
“Them, I think you should do it. I think you’d be a great mom, Scully.”
Scully sighs, and her heart feels lighter hearing him murmur those words to her.
“Thank you.”
“Scully, I’ll be there by the morning.” He promises.
“Mulder, you don’t have to.”
“I know. I’ll be there soon. We should talk more in person.”
“Mulder,” She breathes his name feeling a surge of affection. “See you soon.” She tells him before hanging up, and looks back up at her brother’s house. The Christmas tree twinkles through the window, and the tears in her eyes blur her vision. Maybe she is getting a Christmas miracle after all.