It was late spring and the flowers (a collection of jasmine, lilacs, white roses and violets) that Scully had seeded, between the already full grown hedges, the previous year with her mother, Maggie Scully, were in full bloom and made a colorful border around the front of the Ordinary House. The handle bars of a childs bicycle were leaning against the railing of the front porch stairs and the back wheel was lodged in one of the hedges that bracketed the flowers, there was af baseball bat discarded on the lawn and dog bowl at the bottom of the stairs.

Mulder was sitting on a wooden bench, that he had built himself, on the porch with Ishmael (the chocolate Labrador, that they got as a puppy four years ago) at his feet, reading an email on his iPhone when Scully's black SUV pulled into the driveway.

He slowly raised his arm and waved at Scully (causing her to inadvertently smile, not that he could see that through the SUVs tinted windows), then stood up and walked down the steps.

Ishmael didn't move an inch, only willing to follow Mulder with his eyes.

Scully used her high heeled foot to kick open the door, while she yanked the keys out of the ignition and looked up at the rear-view mirror, at the 6 year old who had his pencil case open and was using his colored pencils on the first page of a new coloring book, in the back seat.

"Hey you..."

"I didn't hit you, did I? Sorry. I was on my feet all day and they are paying me back big time, right now!"

Mulder stopped the door mid-swing, resting his left hand on top of the frame, barring her way and smiled down at her.

"Nah. It's okay. Remind me, and I promise I'll do something about it later tonight"

She ducked under his arm and walked to the back of the car, to retrieve the groceries from the trunk.

"Sounds like a deal"

He pushed his cell phone into his pocket and opened the back passenger door... to help William out.

"Hey, slugger"

He reached out a hand for William to take.

"Hi, Daddy"

"Did you do anything fun at school today?"

William stood in front of him, making little kid thinking noises and shook his head side to side.

"Nope!"

"I don't see how that's possible..."

Without warning he tossed his navy blue backpack at Mulder, a cheeky grin on his face.

"A little help, Mulder"

"Coming..."

Mulder pulled the backpack up onto his right shoulder and made his way to the trunk of the car, where Scully was struggling with a dozen grocery bags, William following close behind.

"Are you sure? I thought you took something special to school today?"

"Oh. CUPCAKES! Uhm, Mrs Pearson let us eat Mommy's cupcakes... 'fore the bell went off... and everyone said they were yummiest they ever had"

Mulder ruffled William's floppy auburn hair, looked over at Scully and smiled. Scully had pretty much been forced to learn to bake ever since William started School. What with the constant avalanche of birthday's that came from his class and she had kind of mastered it even though she had a full time job, at Sacred Heart Hospital caring for other people's sick children. Mulder spent his time researching X Files and compiling them into a book, to be titled 'UnXplained: The Truth', for his publisher and taking William to Little League and Swimming lessons on the weekends.

"It's entirely possible my Mother was more proud of me for learning to bake than getting a degree in medicine, or graduating from Quantico"

"I'm always proud of you, Scully. You're amazing!"

"Thank you"

William squished in between them and began searching for something in the mess of bags. Scully blindly thrust her right hand into one of the bags, and handed him the little bag of Lego they had got while at the Mall.

"Well, I think Mrs Pearson is gonna receive calls from some annoyed parents tomorrow but that does sound fun"

Scully laughed, the truth of Mulder's statement amusing her more than expected.

"I hope she doesn't forward any of the calls to me"

"I'll answer any and all calls regarding cupcakes, if you'd like?"

Mulder leaned over William (who had become stuck between them) and kissed Scully, softly on the lips.

"Ouch"

"Sorry, kiddo"

"Ishy, come!"

William wriggled out from between them, called out to Ishmael and bolted up the front steps and into the house. Ishy barked and ran in after him.

"Whoa, I'll take a few of those..."

"My hero!"

Mulder grabbed a bunch of the grocery bags, and ignored Scully's joke.

"Hey, remember when we used to just order in? Why'd we stop?"

Scully made a funny face at him, trying to remember when their lives changed from hotel rooms and take out to home cooked meals around the dinner table.

"Well, uh, probably around the time William started eating solids. Can't raise a kid on take out, Mulder"

"Right. I think I remember reading that... somewhere"

Scully hit the fob and the trunk slowly closed as they walked up the stairs together and into the house.