Dana Scully walked through the front door of her house to the surprising sound of silence, or lack of sound as the case was. She hung her lab coat on the coat rack and set down her bag. Using the quiet house as a guide, she walked through the kitchen and out the backdoor.

Once outside she remained quiet, observing the scene in front of her. Mulder stood about thirty feet away from her at the base of a large tree. Suddenly, from the tree dropped a young boy. He spotted her immediately. "Mom," he shouted running down the hill, a chocolate lab puppy close on his heels. The dog, Galileo, had been a gift for William's fifth birthday.

Will barreled down the hill and ran straight in Scully grabbing her around the waist. "Hi baby," she said hugging him back and running one hand over his head. "How was your day?"

"Great! Come see what I can do," Will replied dragging her up the hill by the hand. Galileo jumped and panted waiting for his greeting, finally stopping only when Scully reached down to pet him.

Mulder had been watching the two from where he stood by the tree. When they reached him, William dropped Scully's hand and ran to the base of the tree. Mulder reached out and took her hand with his own. "How was work?" he asked.

"Good, it is better to be home though," she replied. "I'm looking forward to the weekend."

"Me too," he added before leaning in and capturing her lips with his.

"Mom, look!" William shouted as he was climbing the tree.

"Do I want to see this?" Scully asked Mulder and she turned to watch Will. Their son was quite the dare devil and often terrified his mother with his stunts.

"I don't know. I've become immune now," Mulder replied with a smirk.

"Here I go," Will shouted. With that he edged his way out on one of the branches of the tree, dropped to a sitting position and spun backwards leaving himself hanging upside down by his knees only from the branch. He grinned at his mother, his auburn hair hanging in lose curls down towards the ground and his eyes glinting with joy and excitement.

"Wow. Will that is very tricky. Be careful okay."

"Oh it gets better... or worse, depending on your persepctive," Mulder added and Will swung slighty and then dropped the ground, barely managing to turn over enough to land on his hands and knees.

Scully flinched as she watched. Will stood up and said, "I want to land on my feet." He moved to climb the tree once more.

"Hey buddy. How about a break from the acrobatics," Mulder said. "Your mom and I are going to go finish up dinner."

He led Scully into the house, his hand on the small of her back. Scully made a salad while Mulder finished up a dinner of chicken and pasta. From where she stood making the salad, she could see William running around and playing with Galileo. She finished the salad and grabbed plates, napkins, and silverware and walked onto the back patio. "Will," she called. "Go wash up and then come help set the table."

"Okay," Will yelled hurrying down the hill and toward the house. "I'm starving."

A few minutes later, the small family was settled down to a nice dinner. William was talking a mile a minute barely able to manage bites between his stories. Across the table, Mulder grinned and winked at Scully, who smiled in return as William said, "Then after recess we read another story. It was about a bear and..."