Title: Blooming

Author: Dri

Category: Vignette, MSR

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Blink and you'll miss a tiny one from Within. 

Archive: Sure, just drop me a note so I can visit it.

Feedback: Cherished at marmalad@zaz.com.br

Disclaimer: This duo still belongs to the guy.

Note: This is my response to the challenge proposed by 
Kimberly on the IWTB list. I like to think of this one as a 
companion piece to Joyous, a fic I wrote for yet another IWTB 
challenge. The challenge elements will be listed at the end of 
the story.

**********************

Summary: They're bound to bloom together.

**********************


His memory had always been the most reliable photograph album 
he had. A continuous slideshow of redless, greenless snapshots 
flowed in shades of blue, and visiting these, he and a 
compelling sensation of joy were not strangers to each other. 
It was the only safe place he had during the everlasting time 
he had been held captive, and he returned there often. 

This place had her name.

**********

The palm of his hand lovingly rubs almond solution on the 
expanded swell of her belly and she smiles up at him.

Another kick right there, near her ribcage.

He feels it, and cocks what he knows is the thousandth silly 
grin of the night in her direction.

He holds the site of the activity under his fingertips and 
reassures her that, with a kick like that, the future of their 
child as captain of the high school football team is already a 
given. She asks whether he wouldn't rather have a baseball 
player in the family.

He tells her his only wish is that their child would love him 
despite everything.

She covers his hand with hers.

The restless kid gives another kick for life.

**********

He had bared his soul to her that first night home. Not with 
words, for he had no recollections of what had been done to 
him. In his head, there was only a vague corridor filled with 
the anguished cries of her name; on his body he carried angry 
scars, tactile proof of the brutality he had suffered.

As her outstretched fingertips traced the cuts and bruises 
marring his shirtless torso and his teary face, his heart 
desperately zoomed in on all the images his retinas had 
guarded, of the times those little pilgrims of her hands had 
wandered and worshipped that same pathway.

It was no use.

From the newer strands of gray in his hair to the tiny cuts on 
the soles of his feet, he bore a long inscription attesting to 
what they had searched for since the beginning of their 
tortuous journey together. In her eyes, he saw himself as a 
letter that couldn't be lost again, no matter how hard it was 
to read nor how much pain it had caused. It was to be kept and 
cherished simply because it was part of the essence of someone 
you once had loved.

With tears causing a lump in her throat and sliding down her 
face, she told him that in his case he was still loved.

He couldn't possibly love her more than he loved her at that 
moment.

**********

The fleshed-out house of their child glows under the tearful 
light of his gaze. The awe caused by the changes in her body 
still renders him speechless. His eyelashes snap in wonder as 
he registers all the new contours etched in her skin, contours 
that have a part of himself within. Curves that, no matter how 
withered he is by life, he'll never be able to forget.

Her girth makes her look like a huge cherry blossom, ready to 
bloom in the awakening of spring. Delicate, soft, full of life. 
He pushes aside the thought that he almost missed all of this, 
the simple joy of witnessing the miracle in her womb growing 
into life. Yet, one look at her sleepy face and he sees it - 
if she could, she would have waited for him just because 
they're bound to bloom together. 
 
He tells her how beautiful she is. She falls asleep trying to 
reason with him about the changes in her body, mumbling 
something about the Victoria's Secret collection lost in the 
bottom drawer of her dresser.

He doesn't care. Having her lying amidst the sheets in his 
bed, her right hand securely curved around the base of her 
belly, her lips slightly parted, clothed only by the veil of 
his gaze - this is worth the sacrifice of any undergarment 
collection. 

His newest favorite bookcover until their child is born.

He lays his lips on her stomach, an open-mouthed kiss on her 
bellybutton, right where he believes the kiddo's heart is 
beating in concert with its mother's, until his eyes and his 
lungs burn and he has to let them go in order to gather more 
air. Then he says goodnight to both of his universes and lies 
down to sleep.

**********

He dreams of a cherry blossom that doesn't bloom into a rosy 
flower, but into a healthy child with its mother's courage, 
its father's hopes, and its parents' strength.


Fim

****************

The elements proposed by Kim were:

- A photo album ( sort of )
- Cherry blossoms
- Lost undergarments ( sort of )
- Mulder's reaction to Scully's pregnancy
- A lost letter found ( sort of )
- A long open mouthed kiss ( sort of )

Well, just don't consider the sorts of and go for it :)

My heartfelt thanks to Gar for the last minute beta and for the 
help with the poetry, to Mo and Georgia for the final stamp of
approval, and to the IWTB list members for being what you are and 
for feeding my muse. Also, I still want to make it a trilogy. Who's 
next to come up with the challenge elements?


Comments cherished at marmalad@zaz.com.br