Title: Moments I: Near Your Heart

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: A moment passes between the Scully women.

Disclaimer: This is so painful... ::takes a moment to compose herself:: I do not own the X-Files or any of its characters. They belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and FOX. There, I said it.

Author's Notes: The "Moments" series is going to be basically a collection of short fics, some could be post-eps, continuations, or just moments that could have occurred, some AU stuff, you know. They'll be scattered, but I figured it was cool to group them under a particular heading, LOL. Oh, and it's mushy and sentimental, but that's just the way I am!!

~X~

Maggie Scully entered her home, and shook the rain off her hair. As she slipped off her rain coat, she could hear her daughter's voice on the answering machine. She ran into the living room. Maggie could tell by her tone that she was frantic, and she sounded like she'd been crying. She grabbed the cordless phone from the base, and asked,
"Dana, Dana honey what's wrong?"
"Mom? Hi."
"Hi, sweetheart. You sound upset, what's going on?" She queried, turning on the kitchen light and starting the tea water. She did it without thinking; it had always been her method of comfort. Tea.
"I need to talk to you," Scully said, quietly.
"Why don't you come over, sweetheart. I just put on the water; I'll make some tea."
"Since you phrased it less as a question, and more as a statement, I'll be over in fifteen minutes," Scully replied, and Maggie could almost *hear* the grin in her voice.
"Drive carefully, Dana, it's raining cats and dogs out there," her mother offered.
"Thanks, Mom," Scully said, and hung up.

Fifteen minutes later, Maggie opened the door to find her distraught daughter on the other side. She immediately saw the redness of Scully's face, the puffiness of her eyes.
"What's wrong?" she asked, gently, touching her daughter's cheek. Scully broke down and fell into the comfort of her mother's arms, as she had done so often as a child. Maggie held her sobbing daughter, who still wore her rain coat.
"Dana, honey, you need to get out of this wet coat before you get sick." Scully nodded and lingered a moment longer before taking her coat off and hanging it up. She then walked over and sat on the couch.
Wordlessly, Maggie brought back two steaming cups of tea, and noticed that her daughter had a faraway look in her eyes as she crumpled a tissue in her left hand and her right rested on her abdomen. She seated herself beside the younger woman, and handed her the mug, which she took with a smile. But before she even took a sip, she said,
"Is it caffeinated?"
"Yes," Maggie replied, studying her daughter peculiarly. Scully set the mug down on a coaster, and said,
"Mom....Mulder's gone missing. He was taken." Maggie felt her heart sink as tears appeared in the corners of her daughter's eyes.
"Oh baby, come here," she said, setting her mug down so she could wrap her arms around her daughter. As Scully sobbed into her mother's shoulder, Maggie stroked her hair and said softly, "Oh, you poor thing."
"I don't know how I can go on without him."
"Don't talk like that. Fox isn't dead," Maggie urged. "He's the most stubborn person I know, besides you of course," she paused to let the humor get to her daughter, who laughed weakly into her shoulder, and then smiled as she said, "He'll come back to you. Love always finds a way." Scully sat back and looked at her mother.
"It's odd that you should mention 'love'. There's so much I have to tell you, Mom." Scully paused, and Maggie nodded, squeezing her hand.
"Go on. I'm not here to judge, Dana."
"Mulder and I became...involved." Maggie raised an eyebrow.
"Involved?"
"Yes. Romantically." Her mother smiled, and Scully continued. "Six weeks ago, we..."She looked more than mildly uncomfortable. "Consummated our relationship. It was then that I realized I loved him....Well more than that, it was when I realized that I was *in love* with him. Nothing would ever change that." Maggie was happy that Dana had found love, but saddened because they were split up in such a manner. Scully cleared her throat and looked her mother in the eye before continuing.
"Three days ago, when Mulder and I were out in Oregon on a case, I kept experiencing dizzy spells. He was worried about me, and told me so. He wanted me to go home while he and Skinner looked for the missing 'craft'. He was worried that my cancer might've come out of remission, and he sent me home.
"Before my flight left, I stood with him in the airport, and asked him why he worried about me so much. He told me it was because he loved me, and he didn't want to lose another person that he loved. I told him that I loved him too, and that he had to be careful. He promised he would be, and that he would see me in two days." Scully looked at her mother.
"I fell ill, and wound up in the hospital two days ago, and the doctor informed me that I'm six weeks pregnant." Feelings of both joy and pain resided in each Scully woman. Dana Scully's feelings were clashing head on, causing her to smile once before she dissolved into tears again, and Maggie Scully's joy was overshadowed by her daughter's pain, and the astonishment she felt.
"I'm having Mulder's baby, Mom, and he never even knew! He never got to find out that he gave me the miracle that I've prayed for, for such a long time." Maggie brushed her daughter's hair out of her face, and tucked it behind her ear.
"Dana, I want you to know something. No matter what may happen to Fox, your family will always be here for you, and for your baby."
"Thank you, Mom. I just...I don't know how I can do this without him," she said, her hand resting protectively over her abdomen.
"You're strong, Dana. You can get through this. And when you think that you can't possibly go another day, all you have to do is remind yourself that you carry a piece of Fox with you, this child, near your heart."