Scully lay peacefully in her bed, the apartment hovering at a steady seventy degrees fahrenheit. Her entire world had turned upside down the moment he'd come into her life. She's swapped the pantsuits and hand guns for diapers and onesies. Her days were no longer ruled by paperwork deadlines, but instead revolved around his three hourly feeds.

William stirred in the room across the hall and she held her breath in hopes he'd drift back to sleep. No such luck came as his uncontrollable wail soon followed.

Scully rolled over wearily; the alarm clock read 2:04am. She groaned. William had allowed her a whole twenty-five minutes before the screaming returned. She dragged herself out of the tangled mess of covers and reached blindly for the lamp switch. Yawning, she thrust both arms into her robe and wrapped the tie snugly round her waist, her baby bump diminishing with each week that passed.

The mobile above his cot made shadows dance across the ceiling in a hypnotic fashion. She flicked the bedside light on dim to reveal the tearful infant curled under his blanket.

"I'm here, baby, I'm here" She soothed, picking him out of the basket and holding him close.

The crying faded as he pressed his face into her shoulder.

Scully's mind contemplated the long list of possible desires. He couldn't be hungry already; she'd only just fed him. She smelt him cautiously; no more offensive than usual, he didn't need a change.

William shoved his little fist into his mouth and began chewing away. He already had a tiny tooth appearing; perhaps that was what was causing him grief?

"Okay, little one"

She was about to lay him back down, just as he promptly vomited all over her.

She stood for a moment, too tired to care and contemplating returning to bed naked instead of searching for another pair of pyjamas.

"Better now?" She asked her fidgeting child.

William looked finally content, rubbing his eyes with his little hands.

"You can't go back to bed like this, can you" She sighed at the vomit covered dragon patterned onesie he was sporting.

She lay him down on the changing mat and began rooting through the dresser to find a clean set. Marvin the Martian, a thoughtful gift from Walter; she pulled out the loony tunes onesie and tossed it on the side before peeling off the old one.

William cried as she unpopped the buttons.

"You and me both" She exhaled.

After wrestling his wildly thrashing legs, she'd finally managed to get him clean and dressed.

"Do you wanna sleep with me for a while, William?"

She carried him across the hall and settled him into her large bed. Carefully she stripped her own pyjamas off and searched the pile of clothes for another set. She quickly gave up and flung one of Mulder's t-shirts over her head, before climbing in next to her baby.

"Come on now William, I know you're tired, go to sleep, please"

She kissed his forehead and wrapped the covers loosely around him,

"Night, little one"

Scully lay her head back down on the pillow and snuggled into the mattress. Beside her, William babbled to himself happily, lifting the covers up with his feet and letting them drop back down onto him. He giggled each time.

It wasn't long before he'd manoeuvred himself sideways and started kicking her sharply in the back.

"William, come on" She groaned.

He screamed in excitement and continued the motion. She rolled over and cuddled her wriggling child, praying that he'd fall asleep along with her.

"You haven't slept barely a wink in the past twenty four hours, really how can you have this much energy?"

It shouldn't have surprised her. After all, Mulder often functioned on a mere five hours sleep, choosing to spend his evenings sat in front of a computer screen, or better yet, in the good old days, sat with numerous paper articles. His desk, and in fact his entire apartment would be covered in files. 'Organised chaos', he'd call it.

She glanced at the clock again. Mulder was due back over an hour ago.

The sound of keys on a key chain and the door eking closed came from downstairs. Mulder's feeble attempts to be quiet on return. It was no use, mind, her hearing had become super-sensitised since having William.

Her son's playful giggling had quickly been replaced with groggy whimpering as her lack of engagement bored him. By the time Mulder had appeared upstairs, it had turned into a full-blown tantrum.

Mulder smiled as he entered the bedroom, removing his jacket and letting it drop to the floor. She'd gone way past caring about home-pride; instead the washing machine ran only when they were down to their last remaining clean clothes. Mulder had recently been the one keeping on top of home maintenance. It made a change.

"You look tired" She said to him, before he had a chance to get a word in.

"You even more so" Mulder sunk onto the end of the bed watching Scully try desperately to console their screaming child.

"You giving your Mom a hard time, buddy?"

"He's not been the most cooperative today…" She looked about ready to burst into tears herself.

"Here" Mulder held out his arms, "Let me take him for a while"

"You just literally got back in"

"Yeah, well, I was thinking of staying up a little longer"

Mulder hoisted the thrashing infant into arms. Before leaving he placed a gentle kiss onto her forehead as she snuggled deep under the covers.

"Let's leave your Ma in peace for a little while, shall we, kiddo?" Mulder tossed the dribble-ridden blanket over his shoulder and closed the door softly behind.

….

Dawn was breaking when she finally rose. Groggily, she stretched the length of their king-size bed, enjoying the brief solitude she was rarely allowed nowadays. Despite the harsh lifestyle change, she'd have never given it up for the world. This family of hers, which she and Mulder together had created was the single most rewarding article in her entire life.

She padded downstairs in nothing more than the thin t-shirt of Mulders, contemplating the absence of sound from neither partner nor son.

"Mulder?" She called out sleepily into the darkness.

She eased the living room door open to find Mulder sound asleep on the coach with their son snoozing contently on his chest. Mulder's hand was wrapped around Williams's small frame, with his other tucked leaning behind his head.

She smiled to herself. For some strange reason, she knew deep down that they would never have a traditional family life together. They'd likely never attend parents meetings, never have family BBQ's with the neighbours, or cheer in the stands when William hit his first home run. It terrified her feeling the absence of a future together and not fully understanding why. But above all the bizarre feelings of impending heartache, what mattered to her was right here, right now; that her happy and healthy baby boy was fast asleep tucked up with her everlasting soul mate. If she could have lived in the moment for the rest of her life she would have done.