Title: Behind the Scenes
Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono
Rating: PG
Category: Story, Romance
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance
Spoilers: Arcadia, Two Fathers/One Son, Chinga
Summary: Mulder and Scully can't sleep the night 
             before the meeting with Kersh and Spender 
             in 'One Son', and we learn there's more 
             to their lives than just work.

This story is what I call a 'Behind the Scenes' story, 
or one that takes place in a semi-alternate universe.  
That means that while the X-Files we see on television 
happen almost exactly as we see it, except for three 
episodes that never happened: 3, Never Again and 
The Field Where I Died, (you'll see why when you 
read on,) Mulder and Scully's 
past histories are different.  The different histories 
will be explained in the story.  If you read the 
companion story 'Behind the Scenes: First Night,' 
that'll explain how Mulder and Scully got together 
in this semi-alternate universe better than the little 
explanation in here.  Basically I wanted a Mulder and 
Scully married with kids story.  But that can't happen 
now, so you'd have to go back before Scully's abduction,
which is how this idea sprung to life.

Feedback: Please?  I'm still not sure if this is a 
silly idea so any feedback is greatly appreciated 
and will be responded to.  But please, no flames 
saying how unlikely this story is.  It's fanfic, 
it's supposed to be inventive, not totally accurate.

Disclaimer: Are they mine?  No.  Is that understood?  
Well, not quite, sometimes I like to play around with 
Mulder and Scully and make them kiss because that'll 
never happen on the show.

Behind the Scenes
Elizabeth L. Iacono

     Dana Scully prowled around the small apartment 
which took up the whole first floor of the small, 
five story apartment building.  She stared at the 
familiar decor of the greatroom, a combined living 
room and kitchen.  The decor didn't match, yet the 
different styles of everything combined to make a 
room that felt like home to her.  It wasn't like 
her apartment in Georgetown, that was only a place 
to sleep.  Although for some strange reason when 
people came looking for her at the other apartment, 
she was always there.  No, that apartment, with its 
nicely matched and classic stylings wasn't home.  
This small apartment, with its mismatched furnishings 
designed for only the four inhabitants who lived there 
on occasion was home.

     Scully crossed to the opposite side of the 
greatroom to the hallway leading to the bedrooms.  
First door to her left was the bathroom.  The second 
door was open as she walked in softly, the bottoms of 
her maroon silk man's style pajamas brushing the 
carpet.  She walked over to the old bed that was her 
little brother's as a child and looked down, smiling.

     The little boy sleeping soundly was curled up in 
the sheets, holding a pillow as if it were a teddy 
bear.  His bright red hair was tousled as it poked 
out the top of the sheets.  Closed eyelids with long 
dark lashes brushing his cheekbones covered expressive 
hazel eyes just like his father's.

     Scully bent down and brushed a light kiss on his 
cheek.  The little boy didn't stir, still sleeping 
heavily.  Scully stood up and walked back into the 
hallway.  She then went into the room next to the 
one she just came out of.

     This room was identical in its small size as 
the other one, but the person this time was different.  
The little girl lay on her stomach, the sheets kicked 
off somewhere by the foot of the bed, as they did 
every night.  Her long, dark brown hair cascaded down 
her back and pooled on the mattress.  Her face was 
turned to toward Scully, her slow breathing brushing 
against the pillow.

     As Scully approached the bed the little girl's 
eyes popped open to reveal bright blue eyes.  Scully 
quickly ran her hand over the back of the little 
girl's head and whispered "Shh, sweetie, go back to 
sleep."  The little girl nodded into the pillow and 
shut her eyes.  Scully brushed another kiss on her 
forehead and walked out of the room.

     From there she walked into the master bedroom 
across the hall.  It was simply furnished, like the 
rest of the rooms.  They didn't have that much money 
then to set up this other apartment.  There was a man 
lying on his side in the bed, his back to her.  The 
silvery moonlight fell on his pajama pants clad legs 
and over his bare back and dark hair.  Scully walked 
over and got into bed next to him, sitting up against 
the headboard.  "Can't sleep either?" she asked, 
looking down at him.

     Fox Mulder turned over onto his back and looked 
up at her.  "Just nervous," he said.  Scully nodded 
sympathetically.  Tomorrow they had a big meeting 
with Kersh and Spender.  Their last case, the one 
involving Spender's mother, had ended up with a mass 
incineration within an airplane hangar.

     But Scully wasn't satisfied.  She'd known him 
for nearly thirteen years, she could tell when he 
was hiding something.  And she had a feeling this 
something else was called Diana Fowley.  They'd had 
a major difference of opinion about her.  Mulder still 
trusted her, Scully had a gut feeling that something 
about her just wasn't right.  Actually she'd thought 
that from the first time she'd met her.  She looked 
down at Mulder expectantly, knowing full well there 
was more.

     Mulder saw the look in her eyes and sighed.  He 
knew he wasn't going to escape telling her what was 
bothering him this time.  He ran a hand over his face.  
"I thought I knew her," he finally said.  Scully ran a 
hand through his hair.  She was right in her guess as 
to what was bothering him.  Sometimes, the man could 
be read like a book, at least of you knew him.  
"People change," she said.

     Mulder moved to sit up next to her and wrapped 
his arm around her shoulder.  Scully leaned her head 
on his chest and waited for him to speak.  "I guess...I 
used to trust her, you know?"

     She nodded into his chest.  "You were married to 
her once, that's understandable."

     "I don't think marriage is the right word for 
it," Mulder muttered.  "But you were right.  Once 
more I acted like an ass, ignored the evidence you 
found that was very accurate.  And..." he trailed off.

     "I think," Scully began "that she wanted to drive 
us apart.  She was trying to get you to go along with 
her and do what she wanted you to do."

     "Which would have been what they wanted," he said, 
and she knew what 'they' he meant.

     "If she drove us apart, without science to 
validate your theories, they could pass you off as 
a renegade nutcase and get you out of their way easily."

     Mulder looked down at his partner and wife's head 
resting against him.  "Is that what she was trying to 
do by putting us in the decontamination shower 
together?  Embarrass us enough to split us up?  I'd 
love to tell her it didn't work."

     Scully rubbed a hand on his stomach and smiled.  
"Come on, Mulder I saw you checking me out in there.  
It's not like you haven't seen it before," she said 
and felt his chest rumble with laughter.  "She wants 
you back, you know," Scully said more seriously.

     "She does?  How do you know?" Mulder asked, puzzled.

     She let out a little laugh.  "Call it woman's 
intuition.  We can always tell about these things.  
She wants you back, and even though our relationship 
appears purely professional, she thinks I'm an obstacle."

     "Actually, according to the secretarial pool we're 
not 'purely professional' and have been 'doing it' for 
years," he grinned.  Mulder then wrapped his other arm 
around Scully and hugged her tightly.  "I moved on from 
that relationship a long time ago."

     "Mulder, you moved on even before the divorce 
papers arrived," Scully smiled, looking up at him and 
remembering a time from over eight years ago.

     "That was your fault, you know," he grinned down 
at her.

     Scully cocked an eyebrow.  "My fault?"

     "Yes.  I was in love with you first but I didn't 
realize it until after I was married."

     "And why was that my fault?" she said.

     "Uh..." he stuttered.  She looked up at him 
expectantly.  He quickly changed the topic.  "D'you 
think you'll be getting back to sleep anytime soon?"

     She smiled at his quick change.  It wasn't her 
fault.  If it was anyone's fault it was both of theirs 
for realizing it so late.  "You want some coffee?" 
she asked.

     "Okay."  Mulder and Scully got out of bed and 
headed towards the common room.  On the way there 
Scully's mind wandered, thinking about her and 
Mulder's life together.

     They'd met in 1986, when she was in med school 
and Mulder was just entering Quantico.  Five students 
from a Quantico study group and three Maryland U med 
school students have a chance meeting in a small 
diner.  They all got stuck there during a heavy 
rainstorm and somehow, inexplicably, sudden friendships 
were formed that would last.

     Mulder and Scully were immediately drawn to each 
other, although only as friends (at first).  Their 
friends however saw the potential and the great 
matchmakers attempted to strike.  But a few weeks 
later Scully began dating a new guy and Mulder a 
woman (or is it bitch?) named Diana Fowley.

     The group (as we shall refer to their other 
friends) needless to say didn't care for her 
too much, Scully most of all, although she didn't 
know why.  It was really jealousy, as she would find 
out later.  Luckily though Mulder and Scully still 
managed to become best friends, both convinced there 
was nothing of a romantic sort between them.

     Meanwhile Scully kept dating other guys, and 
Mulder kept dating Diana, and the group kept trying 
to get Mulder and Scully together.  In 1988, Mulder 
proposed to Diana, thinking it was the right thing 
to do.  In reality he was falling in love with Scully 
but refused to admit it because they were 'just friends'.

     Scully was happy for Mulder because he was happy, 
or at least he appeared happy.  In early 1989 they got 
married, and the group was now plotting how to break up 
the marriage and get the two people who should be 
together-together.

     Luckily the marriage hit the skids early on.  
Diana hated the group (this included Scully) and 
had only met them a very few times (which in 
retrospect was a very good thing).  So she tried to 
get Mulder to stop hanging out with them.  Well, he 
didn't listen and it became that the only time they 
spent together aside from work and free time (of 
which most of Mulder's was spent with Scully and 
the rest of the group) was for sleeping.

     Then there was the groups Christmas party in 
1989. Diana was out of town visiting family, and 
Mulder was having a good time at the party.  
Neither him nor Scully noticed they were 
practically joined at the hip all night.

     They had wandered off, away from the others, 
when they found themselves under a sprig of mistletoe.  
Naturally, they kissed.  The thing is, most kisses 
under the mistletoe for 'just friends' don't last 
for a good five minutes with tongue.

     And as is par for the course, they just denied 
it afterwards and pretended it never happened.  Then, 
Scully got into Quantico and began dating Jack Willis.  
Mulder didn't like this one bit.  Willis had a bit of 
a reputation as a womanizer.  He was also almost ten 
years older than her.  Mulder wondered why he was so 
worried about his friend.  He was actually jealous, 
and he was just starting to realize that what he felt 
for Scully could possibly be more than friendship.  
And Scully was beginning to wonder the same thing.

     Her relationship with Willis was okay, but she 
wasn't satisfied with it.  She kept comparing him to 
Mulder.  By November of 1990 her relationship with 
Willis was over and Mulder was lucky if Diana showed 
up at the apartment once a week.  It was apparent 
that divorce was on the horizon (thank God).

     One night the inevitable happened.  Scully was 
over at Mulder's apartment.  She was able to go there 
because Diana was luckily on a month long conference 
in San Francisco.  They were just hanging out and one 
moment they started kissing.  To both of them this felt 
right.  They weren't thinking of old boyfriends, or 
soon to be ex-wives, just them.

     Well, given the natural progression of over four 
years of unresolved sexual tension, they ended up in 
the bedroom.  The next morning, Scully kept panicking 
about how she slept with a married man, while Mulder 
kept calming her down.  Coincidentally a courier 
showed up that morning with divorce papers from Diana's 
lawyer.  Problem solved.

     The next year was good to them.  Mulder's family 
accepted Scully (what he saw of them) and Scully's 
family accepted Mulder.  Except for Bill Jr.  He was 
a dink even back then.

     On their first anniversary of being a couple 
they made a sort of informal engagement.  Scully 
was surprised he'd be talking about marriage so 
soon after the failure of his last one, but 
Mulder said that there'd be no one else but 
Scully for him.

     Then a slight problem arose on March 6th, 1992.  
Scully was re-assigned in the FBI.  She wasn't 
transferred to California or anyplace like that, but 
to a small little division in the basement of the 
J. Edgar Hoover building called the X-Files division.  
A division that was run by one Fox Mulder.

     Now, there was no actual rule against partners 
fraternizing, but they really didn't like it.  So 
Mulder and Scully's relationship was hid from the 
FBI.  All that meant was no fooling around in the 
office and just watching out a little in public.

     But then something very unexpected happened.  
That August, five months into the X-Files partnership, 
Scully found out she was two months pregnant.  No prizes 
for guessing who the father was.  Luckily though they 
had a sort of guardian angel.

     The afternoon right after Scully told Mulder she 
was pregnant her mother called asking if Dana could 
take some time off because her grandmother was really 
sick.  The FBI has a policy that for a family emergency, 
any agent may take leave of absence for up to a year.  
Scully readily took an eleven-month leave of absence 
and went over to Ireland with her mother, father, and 
younger brother Charles and his wife to take care of 
the grandmother.

     That September Mulder took a few weeks off and 
went over there to get married.  Both believed that 
it would be the best thing to do to get married 
before the baby was born.  It was a simple ceremony, 
with only family there.  The marriage certificate was 
hid in a bottom of a file cabinet in the Lone 
Gunmen's office.

     Six months later, on March 21, 1993, Scully had 
twins.  Luckily Mulder was able to make it over there 
for the labor so Scully could squeeze the living 
daylights out of his hand.  The boy was named Evan Fox 
(at Scully's insistence) and a girl named 
Anastasia Elspeth (which was what Samantha really 
wanted to be called, Mulder had said).

     When they got back to the states at the end of 
June, Mr. and Mrs. Scully offered to take care of the 
babies while Dana and Fox were working or out of town.  
They also had some inkling of what could happen with the 
FBI.  In the meantime Scully and Mulder found a little 
apartment where they could stay and to raise the 
babies.  They also kept their old apartments just in case 
the FBI did a little checking.  But in other words, 
things were good.


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     "Scully.  Hey Scully!"  Scully snapped her head 
up.  She found herself leaning against the kitchen 
sink.  She stared around the odd kitchen, the main 
feature a large fireplace set in the back wall of the 
room, instead of in the living room.  When they had 
bought the apartment they were told that this part of 
the first floor used to be the kitchen for the whole 
house, that's why it was set up strangely.  Mulder 
was standing in front of her holding a mug of coffee 
out to her.  She took the cup and took a sip out of 
it.  "What were you thinking of?" he asked.

     She smiled up at him.  "Just how we got here."

     Mulder put down his mug and wrapped his arms 
around her.  He placed a soft kiss on her forehead.  
He decided now was probably the best time to beg 
for forgiveness.  "I'm so sorry.  I acted like a...a..."

     "An idiot," she grinned looking up at his sheepish 
face.  She slipped out of his arms, took his hand and 
tugged at it.  "Come on."  Scully lead him over to 
the couch with its multicolored cushions.  They sat 
down, with Mulder propping his feet up on the coffee 
table and Scully curling up next to him, her feet in 
his lap.

     "I know you Mulder," she said, wrapping her left 
arm around his shoulders.  "No matter how much you say 
'trust no one' you still want to trust them.  You 
trusted her enough once to marry her, you expected 
to still be able to trust her.  We both know that 
trust wasn't why the marriage collapsed.  You can't 
help that part of it.  You did act a bit juvenile, 
ignoring some facts that I found that turned out to 
be right."  Mulder let his head hang, and to comfort 
him Scully kissed him on the cheek.  "You weren't 
thinking straight.  You knew it was personal to me.  
It was personal to both of us.  But, let's face it, 
Fox, you've been really bored without the X-Files, 
and your brain hasn't been working right."  She leaned 
her forehead against the side of his head and hid her 
grin in his hair.

     He twisted his head and looked at her.  "'My 
brain hasn't been working right'?"

     Scully giggled.  "You know what I mean.  When 
you get bored you get silly.  Remember when I took 
that vacation by myself in Maine?"

     Mulder grumbled "Yeah, you left me all by myself 
for the weekend."

     Scully kicked his leg with the feet still in his 
lap.  "When I got back the ceiling was full of pencils 
you sharpened and threw there!"

     Mulder suddenly wrapped his arms around Scully and 
pulled her into his lap.  He nuzzled her neck with his 
head.  "All that proves is how much I need you."

     "Then next time trust me when I tell you something."
Scully lifted his face to hers and kissed him lightly on 
the lips.  "Got that?" she whispered.

     "Yes, ma'am," Mulder whispered as he pulled her 
back for another, longer kiss.

     Their kisses were interrupted by the sound of 
little feet padding along the wooden floor.  Their 
heads pulled apart to see the twins standing in front 
of the couch.  "What are you doing up?" Scully asked.

     Mulder looked at the twins.  Evan was taller with 
his hazel eyes and his mother's red hair.  He took 
after his mother in other respects too.  Evan was 
the more calm of the two, thinking more before he acted.

     Mulder then looked over at Evan's fifteen minutes 
younger sister, Anastasia.  Or Anya, as she asked to be 
called, after the character in the movie that had the 
same name as she had.  Anya was smaller than Evan, 
getting her height, coloring, and blue eyes from Scully.
Her long, dark brown hair though was clearly from him.  
Along with his tendency to get into trouble.  Both twins 
were very smart, and were already getting bored in their 
kindergarten class.

     "We can't sleep," Evan said.

     "And everyone else is up too," Anya chimed in, "so 
why can't we stay up?  And we went to bed early too."

     Scully shot a look at Mulder.  "They inherited 
your sleeping habits."  Mulder shrugged.  She looked 
back at the twins standing there, Evan in a pajama set 
and Anya in a nightgown, both with whipped puppy dog 
looks on their faces.  'They got that from him too,' 
she thought as she moved off Mulder's lap.  "Okay, 
get up here," she said.

     The two kids scrambled up, Evan seating himself 
on Mulder's lap that Scully just vacated, and Anya 
nestled comfortably in the small space between Mulder 
and Scully.

     Scully looked at the VCR clock.  They only had 
about an hour until they had to get ready for work, 
so it wasn't worth it for them to go back to sleep.  
The twins could manage too.  They had gone to bed 
exhausted from a class trip to a museum the day before 
and they always had naptime in their class anyway just 
in case they became too tired during the day.

     "Can we put on a movie?" Scully heard Evan ask, 
and she smiled as the hectic patterns of life began 
once more.


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END PART ONE

PART TWO

Disclaimer in part one

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The Same Day
6:30 p.m.

     Mulder waited outside the twins school to pick 
them up from their afterschool program that was provided 
for any kids whose parents work.  One of the people in 
charge of the program always walked them out, and they 
all knew by now what each kids parents looked like.  It 
was a good private school, the best in the area, and 
with the help of Mulder's inheritance from his father 
had secured the twins' education for the rest of their 
lives.  The school was also good because he'd had the 
Gunmen check it out, and no FBI agent had any kids 
enrolled in the school, nor were any teachers married 
to any agents.  That was a thing Mulder did in order to 
ensure the twins' safety.  Sometimes it wasn't too bad to 
be paranoid.

     He sighed and leaned back in the car seat.  It was 
a long day.  The meeting with Kersh went better than he 
expected.  Much better.  He and Scully now had the X-Files 
back, a twist of fate not even he had anticipated.  Mulder 
was taken back with a little bit of admiration for Spender 
when he admitted his own faults and requested that the 
X-Files be turned back over to people who could handle 
them.

     In spite of that good news, though, the day went 
downhill from there.  Skinner had went down to the 
basement to talk to Spender about his re-assignment 
when he found Spender's dead body lying in a pool of 
blood.  They'd called the paramedics and the forensics 
team in, but they didn't find anything that was out of 
the ordinary.  Mulder's guess was that he had goofed up 
royally with 'Them' and that the Smoking Man-C.G.B. 
Spender or whoever the hell he was had him taken out.

     But as much as this turn of events was startling, 
Mulder's mind was already getting back to the X-Files.  
He was thinking about how he could get his file cabinet 
back in order and how to clear out the sickening stench 
of Fowley's perfume.  Most of all he was thinking of all 
re-decorating he had to do in the office.  It was too 
dull now.  The only way he'd ever have a nice picture 
of the president in there was if it was taped to his 
dartboard.  And he wanted to see if he could find another 
'I want to believe' poster.  It would be the crowning 
touch to get things back to normal.

     Their first case back, though, wasn't quite normal.  
Well, it was a normal X-File, thank God for that, but the 
way they were going to investigate was different than they 
had done before.  Skinner had told them about the case 
right before he found Spender's body.  Three couples 
had disappeared over a number of years from a planned 
community in California.  The only way anyone had known 
they were missing was if some family member or a co-worker 
had spoken up about it.  Skinner had decided that the best 
approach to the case would be to go undercover as 
prospective home buyers.  In other words he wanted 
them to pose as a married couple.  Mulder had to fight 
breaking into a grin at this.  That part of this new 
assignment shouldn't be too hard for either of them.  
He'd also wondered if Skinner was trying to play 
matchmaker by telling them to approach the case this 
way.  Mulder wondered what Skinner's reaction would 
be if he told him that he and Scully already had 
practice in the marriage part.

     Mulder saw the twins coming out of the school 
and running towards the car.  He waved to the woman 
who was walking them out today and she let the kids 
go towards his car.  Within seconds the car door 
opened and the two kids climbed into the back seat.  
"Hi Daddy," they said at nearly the same time.

     He turned around slightly in his seat to look at 
them.  "You all buckled in?" he asked.

     "Yeah," Anya said and Evan nodded.

     "Okay," Mulder said and started up the car.  
"Let's get home."  

There were some things that needed to change 
in order to survive, Mulder knew, but this, his 
family, the ones he loved, Scully, Anya, and Evan, 
was one thing that he'd want to keep exactly the same.


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Of course after this the episode Arcadia would be 
a little different.  They'd be enjoying the 
assignment a lot more.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Elizabeth


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"True love, it's the 
greatest thing in the
world."

Miracle Max
The Princess Bride
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"Men will fight bravely
and be heroes, but for a
last ditch defense against
any odds, get a mother."

Lightbringer
High Wizardry
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