After the Future 7 -Part 2 (PG-13)

He located Beth at the clinic and as usual Frohike was there. Beth left immediately even though he tried to tell her it wasn’t an emergency. And that he didn’t want to be alone with Frohike.

"Mulder? Is something wrong?" Frohike looked over at him, clearly curious.

"Not wrong exactly." He forced himself over to Frohike’s side and perched on the desk. No that didn’t feel right, towering over the man. He moved to the desk chair – well that put the desk between them. He rose again and began to pace.

"Mulder, what is it?" Frohike sat watching him, not sure whether to laugh or not.

"I, uh, I was wondering about you and Beth."

Frohike grinned, "Hot, isn’t she."

Mulder scrubbed his face with his hand. "Yeah, well, I was wondering if you and she, if you had any plans like Walter and Maggie."

"We haven’t talked about it. There’s no hurry."

"Well, yeah, there is." Mulder looked away, this was going well. Thank goodness Katy was a girl and Scully would have to handle this. Except that he would have already killed the guy and . . . back on topic Mulder!

"What are you talking about Mulder?" Frohike was losing his sense of humor rapidly.

"You and Beth." He pulled a chair over beside the shorter man and sat down. "She’s, Beth is pregnant."

"She’s what?" Frohike leaned forward. "How would you know that?"

"Scully told me. I just, I wanted to know . . . " He finally looked up and caught the bemused expression on Frohike’s face.

"Beth’s going to have a baby?" Mulder nodded. "Mine?" At that Mulder grinned and then chuckled at the answering grin that completely covered Frohike’s face.

"You’re not kidding."

"Nope. You gonna marry her?"

"Hell yes! That is, if she’ll have me." Now worry was growing on his face.

"I wouldn’t think that would be a problem. She’s already sleeping with you. " He laughed out loud at the blush that took over Frohike’s face.

"Why didn’t she tell me?"

"She, uh, she doesn’t know. That’s what Scully wanted to see her about, to run some tests."

"Is everything okay?" He was on his feet now and Mulder found himself relaxing for the first time since he’d walked in. He remembered that worry about Scully, that all-consuming feeling of creating a family.

"She’s fine. Scully’s not going to let anything happen to her." He heard what he’d said and realized that he couldn’t stand in the way of Scully’s research – with Byers’ help.

"I need to see her." He was moving toward the door.

"Hold it, you’re going to need your coat. It’s gotten cold since the sun went down. You might want to give her a little time, too. I mean – "

"I need to be there." He caught the coat Mulder tossed to him and was out the door. It took some moving on Mulder’s part to catch up with him.

They made it back to Mulder’s house in record time and Frohike didn’t bother with the niceties of knocking, fairly bursting into the room. Beth and Scully were seated on the couch; Mulder noted this with a frown but withheld comment. Kelly was gone.

Beth had obviously been crying and Frohike’s steps faltered for an instant, then he was on his knees in front of her. Scully caught Mulder’s eye and he was at her side helping her to her feet. They disappeared into the bedroom to give the shaken couple some privacy.

"I suppose I’m not to mention that you had no business being out there, out of bed."

"Correct." She tried to look stern.

He sighed and changed the subject, "Why was she crying?"

"A combination of happiness, fear, maybe a little embarrassment. She really hadn’t planned this and she was afraid of what he would think."

"As you predicted."

"How about him?" She settled back into Mulder’s arms.

"Proud, scared, he’ll be strutting like a rooster for the next few months. I can tell you, entrapment never entered his mind. How did you explain your knowledge?"

"I just told her I’d noticed some changes. It wasn’t strictly true, but . . . " Mulder nodded. No need to say too much. They both looked up at the tap on the door. Frohike stuck his head in at their answer.

"We’re gonna head over to my place."

Mulder nodded, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks guys." He nodded at them and was gone.

"You know, you haven’t eaten yet. I’ll go dish something up." She rewarded him with a smile and moved to let him up.

When he returned he reached for the fork and she stopped him. "I need to do this, Mulder." She took the fork and though her hand shook, she was able to feed herself without spilling any.

"You’re not going to need me anymore."

She looked up, she caught the tone of his voice – part of him was serious. "Mulder, please. I need to get my strength back, but I’m always going to need you."