Title: Nova

Author: Angel

Feedback: Please! I love every but of it!

Classification: MSR, Colonization fic.

Rating: NC-17 (for some parts-very mild consensual sex- but to be safe!) Others are probably PG-13 or so for naughty words and implied naughty stuff =).

Summery: The inevitable happens. Mulder has planned ahead and now does everything in his power to keep Scully safe.

You MUST read all parts to understand! Available at Ephemeral and my home page.

Disclaimer: You know the drill. Characters are property of Fox, 1013, ect. No money is being made. No infringement is intended. A few poems and songs are used without permission, names of authors are given. Prayers which I did not write, and I don’t know who wrote are included in some areas.

Homepage: (to find missing parts and sooner or later the completed version, also posted at Ephemeral)

A HUGE thanks to Evie my beta reader! Nova would never be doing this well, or going as fast, without her help! Thank you thank you thank you thank you! Umm… one more! Thank you!

Note: Want Nova updates in the mail? Just let me know!

"Baby don’t look up, the sky is falling." Tori Amos

(21/?)

Day 119

Scully stretched her arms over head, arching her spine, letting out soft pops of tension and ache. With a soft sigh she cracked her neck side to side. Better. She lazily made her way over the to the door of her room. Swinging it open she smiled. "Good morning Byers. You can tell Mulder I’m fine."

He smiled shyly. "He asked me to stop by since I was working close by."

Scully stepped aside. "Come on in. I need to get up now anyway. What time is it?"

Byers sat himself in a chair. "Almost nine… are you feeling better?"

She nodded. "I felt fine this morning. I was just really tired; long night."

"Another dream?"

Scully looked at him, only a little surprised he knew. "Yeah." She said softly, nodding.

"I’m sorry." Byers said shyly. "I shouldn’t have mentioned that."

"No, its ok. I’m really not surprised Mulder told you about that. It doesn’t bother me." She glanced over at him from where she was making the bed. "What else did he tell you?"

Byers looked at for a moment. He felt like a deer stuck in the headlights of a eighteen wheeler. Trapped. "He told me you think you are pregnant."

Scully nodded firmly, trying to bring the air of confidence to the conversation. "That is right."

Byers took a low breath in. "Dana-"

"Don’t!" She said, pointing a finger at him. "Don’t start the patronizing ‘Dana, you are infertile’ shit. I hear enough of it from my own brain, I don’t need it from you, Frohike, Langly and especially not Mulder." She spat out bitterly, holding his eyes steadily. She was tired of her given name being used in such a manner. Just because this was an emotional topic, did not mean she needed to be spoken to like a child.

Byers nodded. "We’re are just worried about you, Scully." He quickly picked up on the fact that she was just as wary as everyone else. Her thoughts of pregnancy went against everything she knew as a doctor, but matched entirely with being a woman. She was torn.

Scully rolled her eyes. "I don’t need your concern. I just need someone to believe me for God’s sake!"

"I understand that, I really do. But you have to know, and I’m sure you do, that this is a little… unexpected."

She took a breath, letting it out slowly to calm herself. "I do know that. But I am." She nodded, to herself not Byers. "I am. I must be."

Nodding Byers stood slowly. "Well I’ll let you get ready for work." He opened the door to step out and came face to face with Benjamin. "Excuse me Benjamin, Scully was just about to get ready for the Medical Room." He said with a threatening voice, as threatening as Byers could be.

"I need to speak with her." He said bluntly and stepped around Byers and into the room.

Scully nodded to Byers so he would leave. She could tell that he wanted to stay and watch over her. There was no doubt in her mind that he would be reporting to Mulder about Benjamin’s visit as soon as possible. With a frown Byers left closing the door behind him. "Good morning, Benjamin." Scully said as calmly as she could, the anger was still fresh.

"You’re pregnant?" He asked right away.

Scully starred at him, open mouthed for a moment. "You were listening to my conversation?" She asked in a soft shocked voice.

Benjamin looked startled for a moment then shook his head. "I was going to knock… but I heard you talking and you didn’t sound too happy so I wanted to wait."

"But you were listening." It wasn’t a question this time. Scully had spent years speaking to the lowest life forms in the world, listening to them try to waggle their way out of a question they didn’t want to answer. Dana Scully was not easily lied to.

He paused for a moment, still looking her square in the eye as his voice wavered slightly. "I was afraid that you and Mulder were fighting."

Scully pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She had been out of bed for only a short time and already wanted to forget about the whole day and go back to sleep.

"Dana… are you pregnant?" Benjamin asked again.

Scully looked up at him. "I… I might be. We really don’t know."

"What do you mean ‘we?"

Scully shook her head confused. "Huh?"

"Nothing. It’s just you are a woman, it’s your body. What is there not to be sure about?"

Bracing her hands on the edge of the table she leaned her weight back. "As you know, I shouldn’t be able to become pregnant. So… we aren’t completely convinced."

Benjamin used what he knew in his favor. "You mean Mulder doesn’t believe you."

Scully’s head shot up to look at him. "Neither of us want to get our hopes up, that’s all."

"He doesn’t believe you." He repeated. "What an asshole." He cursed out sharply.

Scully felt her face flush with anger. Mulder might be an asshole at times, but he was her asshole. "Benjamin." She kept her jaw tight in an attempt to speak calmly. "I think you need to leave before I get angry."

He looked up at her with a shocked expression. "Excuse me?"

Scully nodded and stepped forward to open the door for him. "I don’t appreciate you saying things like that about Mulder and I am very late."

Benjamin narrowed his eyes, not moving from where he stood. "I am trying to help you, Dana. You don’t need the added stress of Mulder not believing you are pregnant."

Scully shut her eyes fighting against her emotions. That was the first time anyone had spoken of her being pregnant, with no questions or conditions. "Please, Benjamin, I need to get going with my day."

"All right… I’ll speak to you soon." He walked out the door with a tense posture.

The door shut with a dull thud, another followed as Scully leaned her weight against it, rubbing her face in her hands.

Day 122

"Why the hell didn’t you tell me sooner?!"

"Mulder, calm down man." Langly said quickly stepping out of his path as Mulder paced a path in his room. Langly glanced over at Frohike in a silent plea for help.

"We wanted to be sure."

Mulder glared at Frohike as he stepped up to him, closely. "When someone is stalking Scully you tell me." He hissed out before rejoining his invisible path along on floor.

"He’s not stalking he’s…" Langly searched for the right words.

"Watching, following, lusting after." Mulder looked up at the ceiling as in if deep thought, then nodded. "Yeah I think that qualifies as stalking." They watched Mulder pace for a moment in silence. He was a caged animal. His mind fought between wanting to protect Scully, and their possible child, and wanting to flee. The thought of such a responsibly frightened him. But, oh, he wanted a child. More then his mind was even ready to grasp. Not that he gave it a chance. Whenever that thought of a baby crossed his mind-which was often-he pushed it away. The idea of thinking, planning, and loving this baby that might be, then having that dream stripped away, would kill him. And he knew it. His mind raced so fast he wasn’t able to pinpoint one logical thought.

Frohike leaned in close to Langly, keeping his eyes on Mulder’s frantic pacing. "Where the hell is Byers?"

"He was smart enough to avoid the wrath of Mulder."

"What did you just say?" Mulder asked sharply.

"Nothing." Frohike said quickly. Too quickly judging by the glare Mulder gave him.

"Whatever." He mumbled. "I’m going to go talk to Scully."

"Wait, Mulder." He looked over at Langly expectantly. "Just take is easy. What I mean is don’t get Scully all worked up." He added quickly.

Mulder nodded slowly. "Keep an eye out. And thanks." He added as an afterthought.

Moments later Mulder threw open the door to his room intent on talking to Scully, he had had enough. The tension between them was thick over her questionable pregnancy. He couldn’t handle this anymore. He felt on edge and ready to explode. Enough was enough, but he stopped short when he saw her. She was curled up on her side asleep, shoes still on. Looking innocent and sweet. The vision made his heart ache. He had been about to walk in and fight with her without giving her a chance. He had let him anger get the best of him. The sick realization that that was just like his father made him shudder, another shudder followed at the thought of him ever treating a child that way. Yelling without listening. Shutting the door softly he knelt by the side of the bed and carefully pulled her shoes off.

"Mulder?" She slurred sleepily.

"Go back to sleep." He soothed as he spread a blanket over her.

"Where were you?" She asked rolling onto her back slightly to look at him as he sat at her hips.

"Langly and Frohike wanted to talk to me." He explained pushing her hair from her face.

Scully sighed at the small contact and settled back into the bed. "What about?"

"Benjamin." He answered rubbing his hand up and down her side.

Scully frowned. "Oh… what did they have to say?"

Mulder thought through his wording for a moment. "He’s been following you around Scully." He decided blunter was better in this case: less of a chance of his anger and frustration getting the better of him.

Scully stared at him for a moment. "He is always walking around Nova, Mulder. So am I. We run into each other."

He just looked away and nodded. With a soft sigh he shifted and laid down next to her, his face level with hers but staring straight up. "I don’t trust him."

Scully reached out and placed her hand over his heart. "I didn’t trust Skinner when he first got here, but I do now."

Mulder nodded, but it didn’t change his thoughts about Benjamin. Furrowing his brow Mulder tipped his head as he looked up at the ceiling. "Scully… have you ever noticed there’s an ‘x’ over our bed."

"Yeah, I did notice that." She rolled closer to him, settling her body neatly against his. As strained as her relationship with Mulder was at the moment she felt the need to be close to him. She was not about to let that fact that he didn’t trust her instincts ruin them. Yes it hurt, hurt more then anything he had ever done to her. But she couldn’t let it destroy them. He was all she had-all she wanted.

Day 125

Movement to the side of where Mulder was working caught his attention. He looked up, shocked to see Scully. Her face was blank, and leaned back against a tree, her arms crossed protectively over her chest. "Hi." He said softly, wiping his hands on his jeans he slowly walked up to her. He craned his head down slightly to meet her eyes. "Scully?"

The moment her eyes locked onto his the blank expression crumbled away. With a choked sob she crumpled against him, letting out the tears she had been building. There was too much pain inside of her. Without Mulder to talk opening with everything little added up until this heavy weight settle on her heart.

Mulder wrapped an arm around her waist to support her weak frame, the other cradling the back of her head. "Scully?" He asked desperately. She didn’t answer in anything but wracking tears. "Jesus." He pulled her away from his slightly, taking his face in her hands. "What’s wrong?"

"I-" She choked on her words. "I love you so much it hurts."

Mulder shook his head slowly. He didn’t understand what brought this on.

"And-" Mulder leaned in closer trying to dissever her whisper over the gentle breeze. "it scares me that you don’t believe me, because you are all I have."

Mulder closed his eyes in pain. "I want to, Scully, I do. But if I do and you aren’t it will kill me."

She swallowed forcefully. "It’s killing me that you don’t believe me." Mulder bowed his head slightly, still holding her face in his hands. "It’s my body, Mulder. I know I am pregnant. Please-please believe me. Every doubt I have myself I have put away these past few days. I’ve put my faith in you countless times. I’ve trusted you even when my rational side screamed for me not to. I’m as sure of this as I have been about anything before. What will it take for me to convince you?"

He pulled her back against him, pressing his lips to her temple. Just breathing softly into her hair. He was silent, they both were silent for what seemed like hours. Tilting his head lower, Mulder pressed his lips against her ear. "I believe you." And the weight lifted.

Note: Missing updates? Go straight to my web page or email me and ask to be on the mailing list. Then you won’t have that problem =).

So what did you think? I think… I think we have a long way to go =). To answer the popular question it looks like Nova will be completed in a month or two if all goes well and the plans don’t change. Probably 20 more chapters. Hang in there! It’s gonna be an interesting ride!