By Allison McKenzie

The names Dana Scully, Maggie Scully, Fox Mulder, and Samantha Mulder all belong to someone else. Kevin belongs to me, he is Dana Scully’s cousin. I invented him to replace a brother that I don’t know the name to.

It’s Christmas Eve, and the X-files started ten years ago.

I've been on a Christmas

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dana Scully lay on her bed playing with her red hair. It was almost unbearable to be around HIM sometimes, but not at the moment. She knew where he was and he knew where she was. She was in her childhood bedroom on that nice wonderful Christmas Eve and he was on his way to her mothers. It seemed so odd that her mother treated him like one of her brothers but Dana herself loved him with all her heart. She wondered how she had ever made it through ten years without once kissing him. But she enjoyed the way they’re relationship was settled, well, at least the way it HAD been settled up until the day he old her he loved her.

"Oh Mulder." She sighed and heard the front door shut and her mother’s voice welcome him.

"Hello Mrs. Scully. Did Dana make it yet?" the adolescent giggly feeling crawled up her spin and she rolled over on her back to stair at the ceiling.

"Hey, nice legs partner." Came the soft call of Mulder from the doorway. She allowed a soft smile to cross her face. This was the way they greeted each other now, with soft calls of complements and sexual catcalls. She enjoyed it, and so did he.

"Hey babe." She said, not looking or moving. He didn’t move from the doorway. He just watched her and she let her eyes slip closed, enjoying the ever-watchful eyes of Mulder. After a moment she sat up and turned to him. His eyes were soft and fragile, much like the eyes of a child or a cat, not missing a beat. "Hungry?"

"Yeah," his eyes became softer as a small smile spread across his face. It was just big enough to give a peek at the white teeth he had. She walked past him he caught her hand and she paused. Her eyes looked up to meet his and they stood like that for a minute before she spoke. "Well?"

He dropped her hand but she immediately grabbed it and began to pull him down the hall. Suddenly a screaming child ran out of a room and jumped into her arms. A taller woman dashed out of the room chasing the running child and ran right into Mulder.

"Samantha!!" Mulder groaned picking himself up off the ground and helping his sister up as well. Mulder smiled at his sister and patted her head. Samantha smiled at Mulder and then took the child from Dana. Then whispering she said, "Honestly Dana, I don’t know how you put up with this clumsy boy."

Laughing Dana followed Samantha down the hall. Mulder stood behind them and shook his head. Looking to the sky he said, "And they think I’M crazy."

The dinner was laid out on the kitchen table and was a buffet style. Everyone was to sit in the living room after gathering his or her food to watch Scrooged, a Scully family tradition. Dana and Mulder waited for everyone else to get their food before they started. They did it unintentionally as well. To Dana’s mother’s happiness Fox and Dana stood in the corner of the kitchen and talked, completely oblivious to what was going on around them.

"Here Scully try this…" Mulder said before he dipped his finger into his mashed potatoes and wiped them off on Dana’s nose. Dana just smiled and wiped the potatoes off her nose. She ate them quickly and made sure to tease Mulder by slowly licking and sucking on her finger. They joined the rest of the Scully family and guests in the living room, where the movie had already started.

"Geezz…You have odd family traditions Mrs. Scully." Samantha said as the credits began to role on the movie.

"Sam…" Mulder began.

"Please Samantha, call me Maggie. I feel like a surrogate mother to your brother already. I would not be surprised if you or him did not call me Mom one day." Mrs. Scully said. "And my husband, Bill, started us on that movie, and it just doesn’t feel like Christmas without it." Maggie smiled fondly at the memory and then snapped back to the present. "Well, time for bed. Everyone."

Maggie helped get Samantha’s twins to bed and then turned in herself. Kevin, Dana’s twenty-year-old cousin said goodnight and turned in. Maggie didn’t bother Fox or Dana, she knew that they needed time alone and that if she tried to force them into bed that they would both say they were used to it…. Those old habits died hard…. She knew all too well about how hard habits died.

Dana watched her mother say goodnight, before turning back to Fox. They had gotten quite comfortable during the movie and now that the couch was free they still didn’t move. He sat, back against the couch, legs spread open and Dana right between his legs. His arms wrapped around hers and his head resting gentle on hers, his deep breathing imprinting the now well-known smell that said Dana.

"Dana…?"

"Mmm?"

"’member that day in the hospital? When I told you I loved you?"

"Yes," she scoffed. "You were delirious, I can’t believe you remember that."

"What would you say If I did something rash?"

"Haven’t you always been rash?"

Fox pulled a small box out of his jeans pocket and handed it to her. Dana took the box and looked up at Fox. His face told her nothing, and she turned once again to the box. When she opened it her heart almost stopped.

"Dana?"

"Y-Yes?" she stammered as he pulled the simple but beautiful ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger.

"I love you, will you please give my the pleasure of becoming my wife and letting me love you forever?"